20% slump in demand for housing last month, reports NAEA

Demand for homes fell by 20 per cent year-on-year in December, and there were 268 prospective home-owners registered per NAEA member branch, down from 333 in November.

The latest market report from the National Association of Estate Agents says that, echoing this, the number of sales agreed per agency branch fell to five – the lowest since December 2014 when there were also five agreed, and down from seven in November last year.However, first time buyers appear to have taken advantage of the quieter month, as the percentage of sales made to the group increased to 32 per cent; this is the highest since September 2016 when it stood at 32 per cent again, and up from 27 per cent in November last year.

Meanwhile the supply of available properties remained roughly static in December, falling by just one to 33 on average per branch.This is down 20 per cent from last December 2016 when agents were typically marketing 41 properties per branch.

The time taken between offers being accepted and exchanging contracts reduced marginally in December; four per cent of sales went through in under four weeks.

 

Kindly shared by Estate Agent Today