Mortgage News
January housing market activity frozen by bad weather
The number of houses sold in January was 18% less than those sold in December, according to the latest Agency Express Property Activity Index.
Sales were 9.8% down on January 2009 and down by 54.2% compared to 2007 and 52.9% compared to 2008.
In previous years, January has seen a significant uplift in the amount of houses sold compared to the traditionally quiet December.
However, the combination of the ending of the Stamp Duty holiday at the end of December and the bad weather experienced at the start of January led to the worst January for house sales for four years.
Some areas of the country got off to an optimistic start to the year with the North East seeing house sales grow by 12.5% and Wales seeing an increase of 6%.
Central England experienced a 1.4% uplift and five cities saw positive monthly sales growth – Bristol up by 75%, Birmingham up by 68%, Cardiff up by 34, Southampton up by 12.5% and Newcastle by 3%.
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Stephen Watson, managing director at Agency Express, said: “It has been a disappointing start to the year for house sales but the underlying trend is one of recovery. We fully expect February to be a bumper month as the activity that was postponed from January comes through and the news that the UK has exited recession should provide another confidence boost to the market.”