South East remains busiest housing market as ‘green shoots’ emerge - claim

The South East of England continues to lead the way as TwentyCi revealed its latest statistics on property market activity.

The property data company has revealed that as of mid-March, there are 551,212 properties currently on the market across the UK, 353,062 have been sold subject to contract (SSTC) and 232,068 have exchanged.

The South East saw the highest number of new instructions, with 88,540. This is an increase of 4,308 compared with February 2023.
Inner London came second, with 61,117 new instructions. 

The region with the least number of new instructions was Northern Ireland, with 9,003 new instructions. This is still an increase of 147 new instructions compared with February.

The South East also saw the most exchanges despite a slight drop to 57,241 and remains in the top position with 37,178 completions in the past three months to March. This was followed by the North West, with 24,921 completions and the East of England, with 24,898 completions.
 

Nick McConnell, commercial director at TwentyCi, said: “Completed sales volumes continue to remain relatively strong.

“The British Chambers of Commerce has now forecast that the UK economy is on track to shrink less than expected this year and avoid the two-quarters of negative growth which mark a technical recession.

“The brighter outlook chimed with other measures of Britain’s economy including purchasing managers’ index (PMI) surveys and consumer confidence data that have improved in recent weeks. 

“Whilst the pressures on the cost of living and interest rates remain significant the arrival of spring coincides with green shoots of optimism.”