First half of 2021 busiest EVER for estate agents, says Rightmove
The portal says it's been an extraordinary six-months for the housing market during which demand has been outstripping supply heavily.
Rightmove says the first half of the year was the busiest ever for estate agents since its national house price index began in 2002, with HMRC data also expected to record 800,000 sales between January and June.
The portal says feverish activity during the first six months of 2021 helped push the average price of a property coming on to the market up by 6.7% or, on average, £21,389.
This super-hot market also saw 140,000 additional sales being agreed and 85,000 extra listings compared to the long-term average, and that the mismatch between demand and supply totalled 225,000 properties with four-bedroom homes at the top of the list.
There was a 15% reduction in four-bedders coming on to the market despite strong demand, leading to a 6.7% rise in prices on average.
Highest ever
Tim Bannister, Director of Property Data at Rightmove, says: “We predict that the number of completed sales will be the highest ever seen in a single month when June’s data is released by HMRC later this week.
“This means it’s likely that the first half of 2021 has seen a record number of moves when compared with the first six months of any other year, induced by the pandemic’s side-effect of a new focus on what one’s home needs to provide.
Kent agency Miles & Barr’s boss Rob Sabin (pictured) says: “The number of sellers coming to market has slowed as the year has progressed, which means we’ve seen the level of new listings coming to the market significantly decrease year on year, whilst in turn total available stock levels across the market is the lowest we have seen in a number of years.”
