This week’s update on the UK Property Market as of 31st March 2024 (Week 13) indicates a solid number of property transactions and house prices.
In the latest update on the UK Property Market Stats Show with Iain McKenzie on YouTube, the main points are:
- House prices for the 109k properties sold in March are £341/sq.ft, a 3% increase since January 2024.
- New property listings in the last week of March were 17% above the eight-year average for Week 13.
- Total sales so far this year exceed last year’s figure by 9.4%, and surpass the average for the years 2017-2019 by 8.6%.
- Last week’s sales were 12.1% higher than the same week in 2023 and 5% above the average for 2024, despite the Easter holiday.
- One in five sales currently fall through.
Detailed Analysis for Week 13:
- The UK saw 38,008 new property listings this week.
- The cumulative number of listings year-to-date is 446,274, which is 9.2% higher than the eight-year average and 9.4% higher than last year at this time.
- The average price for newly listed properties is £449,778, with the asking price for this week’s new listings remaining 25% above the asking price for properties that went under offer. This percentage is higher than the long-term average of 16-17% due to overpricing across the UK and fewer properties for sale in London & See.
- Last week, 18,456 properties had their prices reduced, which is notably more than the eight-year average for Week 13. This indicates that approximately 1 in 8 properties are reduced in price each month, more than the usual 1 in 9.5.
- The average asking price for properties with reduced prices now stands at £398,084.
- Although Gross Sales dipped to 24,093 last week (an 8.9% decrease), this was expected due to the Good Friday and Easter holidays.
- The cumulative Gross Sales year-to-date increased to 302,382, outperforming the average for years 2017-2019 and 2023 for the same period.
- The average asking price for properties that are sold subject to contract (STC) holds steady, ranging between £350,000 and £360,000, currently at £358,641.
- Sale fall-through numbers saw a significant decline to 4,883, falling below the average for 2023, which is much less than the spike observed in the aftermath of the Truss’onomics Budget in Q4 2022.
- The sale fall-through rate also declined to 20.27% for the week, which is below the eight-year average of 24.8%.
- Net Sales slightly decreased from last week to 19,210 but still remained above the average for years 2017-2019 for Week 13.
- The cumulative Net Sales year-to-date reached 237,543, which is 6% higher than the average for years 2017-2019 and 12.1% higher than last year’s figures.
- House prices for the 109k homes that went under offer in March were £341/sq.ft, marking increases from both January and February 2024.
- The ratio of listings to sales shows that lower-priced properties are more likely to sell, as demonstrated by Q1 2024 data where 35.4% of all UK listings were priced £250,000 or lower, but they made up 42.9% of properties that went under offer.