Will The Property Market Be Hotting Up This Spring?

In a typical year, the spring property market sees heightened activity compared to the winter season. The milder weather and sense of new beginnings during the springtime drive greater activity to the property market.

This makes Springtime a great time of year to buy and sell property. But what about this year? With the major house price indexes quoting house price falls. Is this Spring going to see the rise in activity we would see in a typical year?

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Manning Stainton

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Comparisons With a "Normal" Market

To assess the Spring market outlook, we have been monitoring the trends we can see in the housing market.

But before we start, it's important to take a moment to provide some context.

We have been comparing the current market conditions with the corresponding months of pre-2020. This is before the housing market was impacted by the pandemic.

The pre-pandemic years of 2017 - 2019 are our most recent guide to a "normal" market. A time before the noise and madness in the housing market created by the pandemic

Using these dates gives us a better point of comparison when assessing the performance of the market.

Key Highlights for March 2023

Increase in New Property Listings -20% increase compared to the same month before the pandemic, and even higher than last year.
Rise in New Sales Agreed - between 16% and 23% higher compared to the same months in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and only 7% lower than last year.
Stable Buyer Registrations - The number of buyers registering has shown little change month on month and is similar to the market in 2018 and 2019.

House Prices

But these highlights simply don't marry up to the recent headlines we're seeing. Nationwide reported this week a price drop in March of 0.8% compared to February and a 3.1% fall in prices annually - the biggest since 2009.

The land registry said something very similar with a 1.1% drop in their January report.

Across Manning Stainton, we can confirm that prices have corrected by around 3% since a year ago in our region.

But…. This is nowhere near what most commentators were saying at the end of last year with 10%, 15% and even 20% corrections forecast.

Predictions

It is important to keep in mind that the reported falls in prices in March are prices correcting themselves. Prices simply couldn't have continued to grow at the rates we saw in the post-pandemic boom.

Importantly, these price corrections are not as severe as earlier predictions. This indicates a more stable market than many thought.

As long as inflation remains under control and interest rates remain stable, we expect the market to settle in the coming months. We will continue to closely monitor the market and provide regular updates to keep you informed.

We hope you found this market update insightful. If you have any questions or would like to discuss your property needs, please feel free to contact us today.

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