Prime London sales have slowed significantly, following the rest of the UK as the housing market feels the pinch of the post Stamp Duty holiday rush.
Following a record June, exchanges were down 22% last month in the prime market compared with July 2020, and 39% lower than the five-year July average (2015 to 2019) says property analyst LonRes.
The number of properties going under offer was down 16% year-on-year, however because last July marked the start of the Stamp Duty holiday, volumes were higher than usual.
Comparing ‘under offers’ with the five-year July average shows they were down just 1%.
New instructions were 23% lower than a busy July 2020 when Stamp Duty incentives and lack of activity over the first lockdown brought more homes to market, but 5% higher than in July 2019 and 6% above the five-year average.
Housing market
The zero-rate threshold ceiling has now dropped from £500,000 to £250,000 since 1st July and will only last until the end of September.
Comparing prices achieved over the last three months shows a drop of 1% on the same period a year ago; Prime Fringe recorded the highest annual increase, up 4.2%, while average prices in Prime Central London increased 1.7%, with falls of 0.8% recorded in Prime London.
Marcus Dixon (pictured), head of research at LonRes, says it has been a quiet July for exchanges as sales which, under normal conditions, would have occurred this month were pushed forward into June.
He adds: “Unsurprisingly, the lower end of the market saw the biggest fall in activity between June and July. Only the top end of the market, above £5 million, recorded an annual increase as buyers here were perhaps less inclined to be part of the conveyancing scrum leading up to 30th June.”
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