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Rule book is out the window! Busiest August for agents since records began

Rightmove has made the punchy claim after comparing this month's activity on its website with the past ten years of housing data.

Nigel Lewis

foxtons property

Home movers have put more property on the market and agreed more sales than in any month for more than a decade, as a post-lockdown surge fills the summer holiday void.

Rightmove reports that the previously predictable seasonal rulebook has been rewritten which led to monthly price increases in 10 out of 12 regions in August, with a record high in new seller asking prices in seven of those regions.

Prices usually fall in the summer, but this year, while there is a slight monthly dip of 0.2% (-£768), it’s due to London’s more normal seasonal fall of 2%, reversing what would otherwise have been an unseasonal national rise.

The property platform recorded the highest number of sales agreed in a month – with a record total value of over £37 billion – since it started tracking this data more than 10 years ago, up by 38% on the previous year, and a massive 20% higher than the previous record set in March 2017.

propertyMiles Shipside (left), Rightmove’s housing market analyst, says: “Rather than just a release of existing pent-up demand due to the suspension of the housing market during lockdown, there’s an added layer of additional demand due to people’s changed housing priorities after the experience of lockdown.”

The market has seen the highest number of properties coming to market in a month since March 2008. Those expressing most desire to move on are in London and its commuter belt.

“London has 69% more properties coming to market, with the South East at 60% and the East at 56%,” he says.

“The out-of-city exodus has helped push prices to record levels in Devon and Cornwall, for example, where working from home means a different lifestyle much closer to your new doorstep.”

Shipside adds that momentum is still building, with the latest weekly figure for the number of sales agreed having shot up by 60% compared to the same week a year ago.

Marc von Grundherr, Director of London based estate agency Benham and Reeves says: “Sales are at unprecedented levels and listings too and so we’re seeing both sides of the property market boiling.”

Jeremy Leaf, RICS imageJeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, says: “Despite some suggestions the momentum may fizzle out, there is not yet any sign of bad economic news raining on the parade.

‘On the contrary, a more broad-based sustainable recovery may be underway with increased activity in most price ranges. If anything, the market is more likely to be restrained by lender delays in mortgage underwriting than a drop in buyer enthusiasm. Prices are not rising significantly as the increase in listings is helping to balance the market and in any event most buyers seem aware of the risks of overpaying in generally uncertain times.’

Read more about Rightmove.

August 17, 2020

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