‘Bored of Brexit?’ TwentyCi Q2 analysis shows signs of positivity – and frustration in the property market

Instant download of the report here

TwentyCi releases its national Property & Homemover Report for Q2 2019 – the most comprehensive real time review of the UK housing market

• Exchanges rise 6% year on year to 992,000 properties along with a 2% increase in new instructions
• Some signs of frustration, indicated by 895,000 properties withdrawn from the market over the last 12 months – often to change agent
• The Top 10 cities nationwide all saw an increase in average asking prices year on year except Peterborough, where prices fell by 2%
• Help to Buy powers 22% growth in exchanges on £15-19.9K household income, 18% rise in exchanges for £30-39.9k household income – while exchangers in ‘squeezed middle’, £50-59.9k household income fall by 11% and households with £150k income rise by 26% year on year
• Online agents market share holds steady at around 7%

The latest TwentyCi Property & Homemover Report for Q2 2019 – shows signs of positivity and frustration in the property market in its latest analysis for Q2 – the most comprehensive real time review of the property market.

Positive activity indicating consumers are ‘bored of Brexit’ and just want to get on with their moving plans include a 6% rise in property exchange volumes year on year to 992,000 demonstrating sustained consistency to the levels reported in Q1. There was also a small 2% uplift in new properties coming onto the market signalling some homeowners are choosing to get on with moving house rather than considering Brexit a sufficient reason to delay any longer.

While some sellers are showing signs of frustration indicated by 895,000 properties withdrawn from the market over the last 12 months - often temporarily to change agent, rather than putting a move on hold.

Q2 analysis also shows that beyond the East and West Midlands, the main growth in average asking prices is limited to the North of the UK and specifically, the North East and Scotland (4% and 2% respectively). Generally, the market is more subdued in the South, with all other regions either static, reporting no movement year on year, or in slight decline, showing a small percentage reduction in average asking prices.

This North-South divide seemingly reflects the increased availability of property and broadly greater affordability, in northern areas of the country where there is less demand for housing vs. reduced housing supply in the South of the UK where there is conversely more requirement for housing.

Nationwide, the UK’s top ten cities all show an increase in average asking prices year on year, up to 4%, apart from Peterborough where prices fell by 2% year on year. Generally, the market is more subdued in the South.

A combination of more new instructions and greater volumes of these properties exchanging is generating more market confidence in these cities, so sellers are typically achieving higher asking prices.

Comments Colin Bradshaw, Chief Customer Officer, TwentyCi: “It’s worth keeping in mind that consistent to our previous reporting, the current political climate has brought about an overall slower moving market; one which requires careful monitoring over the next few months. The overall picture is encouraging however, with signs of growth maintained for the three months to the end of June. Consumer confidence may yet to have fully made a return but there are indications of recovery.”

Help to Buy effect

Households comprising those from low income bands across the £15-39.9k brackets are proportionally buying more properties - very likely to be helped by government schemes such as Help to Buy which is powering the housing market for people with less disposable incomes.

This is indicated by a 22% growth in exchanges with a household income of £15-19.9K, a 18% rise for households with a £30-39.9k income, while exchangers in the ‘squeezed middle’ with a household income of £50-59.9k fell by 11%. There was also a large growth in exchanges for higher household incomes of £150k+ which rose by 26% year on year.

Double-sided market

Equally, with more properties exchanging from lower income household bands, homes valued at £300k and below performed best in Q2 2019, with exchange growth year on year ranging from 8-14%, except for the small number of properties worth less than £50k, which fell by 53%.

There was also further growth in exchanges at the top of the market with properties worth £1-2m growing by 9%, £2-5m properties by 5% and £5m properties by 7% - although this growth was much lower than in Q1 2019. As with Q1 2019, semi-detached and detached houses saw the greatest growth with 9% and 7% rises respectively in Q2.

Sales Vs rent

In Q2, overall rental availability is significant in the top 10 UK cities, with the exception being the London market where rental dominates due to the high price of property. While for Q2 it is Edinburgh and Glasgow where there was the greatest shift for less for sale housing availability, 84% and 77% respectively, in favour of more homes to rent.

High street Vs online agents

Online agent market share remains stable, accounting for 7.3% of all exchanges in Q2 2019, a small dip from 7.6% in Q1.

Year on year, the largest growth for online estate agents has been in the North East, with some growth also in Yorkshire and The Humber, the North West, Scotland and Wales. This continuing trend highlights the attractiveness of online estate agents to homeowners selling lower-priced properties, more of which are typically found in these parts of the country.

The lower market share figures in Q2 for the East of England (-10.6%) London (-23.7 to -17.8%) and the South East of the UK (-6.9%), reveal online agents are still struggling to compete against the traditional high street agents in these regions.

There’s further consistent market growth amongst online estate agents in Q2 2019 for properties valued below £200k (1.7%). Similarly, the figures show much less market share amongst higher-priced properties (-12.9% lower for property values £350-£1m) and -10% for £1m+ properties which there are generally more in the south.

ENDS

^**All data is based on Q2 2019 vs Q2 2018 year-on-year comparison unless otherwise stated.

Editor’s notes – The TwentyCi national Property & Homemover Report

• Customer insights company, TwentyCi’s Property & Homemover report is a comprehensive review of the UK property market, created from the most robust property change sources available – providing a real time review of the UK market and covering 96.6% of all property moves (both sales and rentals).
• This ‘state of the nation’ report provides unique insight into the people behind the numbers, creating a picture of the demographic, regional and socio-economic factors impacting the housing market including:

√ Factual data (not modelled or sentiment-based)

√ Full market coverage

√ Demographic overlay

√ Property sales data

√ Property rental data

√ Real-time data

• The TwentyCi National Property & Homemover Report is published quarterly

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190716005746/en/