Housing market ‘will pick up very quickly’ post-lockdown
Thursday, February 4, 2021
UK housing market activity is slowing after the surge to beat the stamp duty holiday deadline, while the latest coronavirus lockdown is also having an adverse impact on the sector, according to Chestertons.
The company’s latest figures show that 12% more property purchases were agreed over the course of the month compared to January last year and 47% more than December. The firm also saw 28% more deals contractually finalised than in January 2020.
However, while there are more sales being agreed, the stricter lockdown measures have clearly discouraged many would-be buyers from entering the market. Chestertons saw the number of new buyers registering drop by 23% compared to January 2020.
Many sellers with their properties currently on the market are keen to secure a sale before the stamp duty holiday deadline in March and have been quick to react, with over 10% of Chestertons’ sellers dropping their asking price in January. Chestertons currently has nearly 50% more properties for sale compared to January 2020.
Guy Gittins, CEO of Chestertons, comments: “It is clear that the unprecedented levels of buyer activity that we saw in the second half of last year has cooled. This is primarily due to the stricter lockdown measures discouraging people from continuing their search and the fact that the chances of beating the stamp duty holiday deadline is now slim for those that have not yet found a property.
“However, the extraordinary amount of buyer interest we saw towards the end of last year is still converting into record levels of agreed sales as people are pushing hard to get the purchase completed as soon as possible in order to take advantage of the stamp duty saving and to enable them to adapt to the current circumstances.”
Despite the fact that demand is softening, Gittins is optimistic that the housing market will enjoy another post-lockdown mini-boom once the current coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
He added: “There is clearly still a lot of confidence in the market and a lot of people wanting to move and we are very confident that the market will pick up very quickly once lockdown restrictions start to relax.”
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