This week our sales team have been discussing buyer demand. The news headlines ( when they aren’t talking doom, gloom and Covid ) are focussing on just how well the UK housing market is performing.

New sales agreed are up, sales in progression are massively up (putting pressure and strain on the conveyancing process) and the days it to take to find a buyer have dropped.

However one headline is bothering me, and it’s also mis-leading to local property sellers….

Buyer demand across England was 49% higher year-on-year during the first six days of Lockdown 2.

Now, this is not strictly true. Across England as a whole Rightmove have announced this headline figure. However, closer to home in Lancaster, sales were down year on year in this 6 day period. Last year 21 homes sold in the first 6 days. This year it was just 17 homes. The Lancaster housing market was actually down!

The month however has improved. At the time of writing 65 homes sold in November, the exact same number for the same period last year. 24.6% of these homes have sold through our agency. The market is currently strongest in the higher price brackets. Year-on-year has been a 106% uplift in sales priced £400,000–£500,000 compared to just 16% for those priced £100,000–£200,000.

What is also interesting is that across the UK activity levels are also higher in the regions where average property prices are the highest. It is thought this is because buyers are set to make bigger stamp duty savings in these locations.

If you would like to discuss what is happening in the Lancaster Housing Market and would like to know our thoughts on how Tier 3 restrictions and a 2nd lockdown helped to slow it down a little, please get in touch.

One thing for certain is, we are tracking this market very closely and if the recent activity is anything to go back, we feel it we’ll have a very good housing market well into the New Year!

Call me on 01524 843322 or email me at michelle@jdg.co.uk

Thanks for reading

Michelle