The UK housing market is the busiest it has been in more than a decade - with an estimated 1.5 million sales in 2021, the total value of properties sold is around £473bn - which property portal Zoopla estimates as a £95bn increase from 2020.
A recent poll of UK house hunters by Zoopla revealed that moving closer to family and needing additional space were two of the top reasons Brits wanted to move home in 2021.
Meanwhile, a survey of 650 home buyers, conducted by national homebuilder Miller Homes, found that more than a third of buyers currently prioritise extra space while less than three percent relocate for work. This can be attributed to homebuyers’ reassessment of the function of their home in the wake of the pandemic - whether it be the need for home office space, low mortgage rates, better access to mortgages for first-time buyers, and, of course, the stamp duty holiday.
We’re now starting to see the effects of the end of the stamp duty holiday, which officially ended on September 30th. In 2022, buyer demand is likely to dwindle since the market is no longer bolstered by Rishi Sunak’s tax holiday. Additionally, home buyers are now so used to low mortgage rates (ranging between 2-3% since 2015, and hitting a low of 2.1% in 2020), but with economic and financial uncertainty as we head into 2022 this could be set to change - which will inevitably impact on buyers.
On a more positive note, property portal Rightmove claims that the first six months of 2021 were the busiest on record since 2000 - the average price of a homecoming on to the market in the UK has increased by 6.7% since the beginning of 2021. This significant rise in housing equity coupled with lifestyle shifts prompted by the pandemic has driven up prices and activity across the UK, and notably in rural areas such as Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
In fact, the average value of a home has increased by nearly £50,000 over the last five years, and one in seven local authorities across the UK are reporting that two-thirds of their homes have risen in value by more than the average, giving households more scope to make their next move.
At the same time, a swell in the number of online estate agents charging lower fixed fees and with traditional estate agents investing heavily in technology has resulted in a huge shift in the estate agency landscape. The average agency fee was around 1.53% of a property sales price but now the new breed of tech-savvy, full service, efficient agencies, such as www.hollywellhomes.co.uk, charge homeowners a fair fixed fee to market and sell any property. Based on an average property price of £338,447, homeowners using independent new breed agencies stand to save more than £4000 in typical agency fees - a factoring trend that may yield a small but measurable impact on the housing market.
