September was the 3rd busiest month on record for property sales

If you are currently moving home or have just moved, you might have discovered the sales process took a little longer than it normally would do. This Covid has lots to answer for – including a highly active housing market that nobody could have predicted 18 months ago.

September was the 3rd busiest month on record for property sales. It is estimated that 166,000 property completions took place. To give this some context, on an average year – this would normally be around 100,000.

Estate Agents, Mortgages Companies, Conveyancers, and Removal Companies have all found considerably higher volumes than normal, at a time when recruiting staff has become more difficult and many staff have had to juggle the effects of covid ( homeworking, homeschooling, self-isolating etc ). Many solicitors were working long hours with emails flying around at 10pm at night!

Take a look at the graph above. Sales peaked in June 2021 – this coincided with the first stamp duty deadline ending as buyers pushed for their property sale to complete. They dipped in July and August, yet September saw the 2nd surge – again in line with the 2nd stamp duty deadline ending. Everybody wanted to save on stamp duty!

Although sales volumes dipped over the summer months, sales activity in 2021 has far outstripped longer-term averages. Sales volumes for the final quarter will need to be 17% higher than in 2020 to make 2021 the busiest sales market on record!

It’s going to be interesting times moving forward. The housing market feels like we are riding a wave. Prices are remaining high, mainly due to the low levels of new homes coming to the market, this will though allow the solicitors to catch up!

What will 2022 hold? We’ll be covering this in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading

Michelle

Ps. If you do have any questions relating to the Lancaster and Morecambe housing market, please get in touch. At JDG we are here t help!