Big spike in property sales around Budget and now listings pick up
Research by Chestertons and Yopa reveals a jump in house sales before and after Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Budget and an increase in listings since then.
Chestertons reveals property sales spiked before and after the Budget with 71% more transactions.
Matt Thompson, Head of Sales at Chestertons, says before the Budget buyers were concerned about potential changes to Stamp Duty, and wanted to finalise their purchase ahead of the announcement.
Mad scramble
“Many investors and buyers of second homes then had a mad scramble to get their purchase across the line before the end of the 30th [October], when the Chancellor announced that Stamp Duty rates would increase from 3% to 5%.”
But he says there was a 24% drop in the number of properties being put up for sale in October.
Chestertons’ data also shows a 17% decrease in the number of sellers willing to agree to a price reduction.
Picked up pace
Meanwhile, the latest research from hybrid agency Yopa found the property market picked up pace in the two weeks since the Autumn Budget, with 84,000 more homes listed for sale today – an increase of 11.4%.
The figures show there are currently 823,898 homes listed for sale across Britain, and 84,065 of those have entered the market since the Autumn Budget alone. This represents a boost of 11.4% in the number of sellers choosing to make their move.
Now that the Autumn Budget is done and dusted, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of sellers entering the market.”
Verona Frankish, CEO at Yopa, says: “There’s always a sense of uncertainty in the run up to a major budget, and so it’s hardly surprising that many home sellers may have been sitting on the fence to see just what Chancellor Rachel Reeves had up her sleeve for them.
“The answer was unfortunately not a great deal and now that the Autumn Budget is done and dusted, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of sellers entering the market.”
