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Housing transactions dip as market stagnation continues – HMRC

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  • 21/12/2018
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Housing transactions dip as market stagnation continues – HMRC
Property transactions in November fell by 0.5% compared to the same month last year, according to official statistics from HMRC.

 

The seasonally adjusted data showed 100,930 residential transactions in November, a largely unchanged figure from October but down from 101,410 in November 2017.

The figures continue the sluggish trends in the UK property market with little enthusiasm being reported in many parts of the country.

Brexit, wider economic concerns and the affordability of homes are among the key reasons cited by homeowners for not buying or selling properties.

 

Stronger data

Yopa chief property analyst Mike Scott noted the data was stronger than had been seen for most of the year – which in general had bigger annual decreases.

However, it was not as good as October’s year-on-year 1.7 per cent increase.

“The total number of house sales for 2018 will end up being just under 1.2 million, which is two to three per cent down on the figures recorded in each of the previous four years,” he said.

This is still well ahead of the 858,000 sales in 2009 at the height of the credit crunch and far behind the figures of over 1.6 million from both 2006 and 2007 during the housing boom.

“We are still in a normal housing market, and we see no sign of it tipping over to either boom or bust in 2019,” he added.

Former Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors residential chairman Jeremy Leaf added: “In 2019 the big question will be whether continuing supply shortages, improving affordability, very low unemployment, mortgage rates and supporting prices will prevail over political uncertainty.

“We are already seeing signs of many getting fed up with waiting so anticipate a fairly similar, subdued, market in the first few months of the year.”

 

 

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