Number of properties selling over asking price reached an all-time high in April

NAEA Propertymark publishes its latest Housing Market Report, showing that number of properties selling over asking price reached an all-time high in April.

Headlines from the report:

• One in three (32%) properties sold for more than asking price in April – the highest on record
• Number of sales agreed per branch reached highest on record for the month of April
• Supply of properties reached the lowest number recorded since December 2002

Demand for housing:

• The average number of house hunters registered per estate agent branch stood at 427 in April, which is an increase from 409 in March.
• This is also the highest figure for April since 2004 when there were 487 house hunters registered per branch.

Supply of available properties:

• The number of properties available per member branch stood at 27 in April, falling from 31 in March.
• This figure is the lowest recorded since December 2002 when 25 properties were available per branch.
• This means there is an average of 16 buyers for every available property on the market.

What properties sold for:

• In April, one in three (32 per cent) properties sold for more than the original asking price.
• This is twice as many properties than in March when 16 per cent of properties sold for more than the original asking price.
• This is also the highest figure on record, beating the previous record of 19 per cent in May 2014.

Sales agreed:

• The average number of sales agreed per estate agent branch stood at 12 in April which is the same as in March.
• Year-on-year, this figure is the highest for the month of April since 2007 when the number of sales per estate agent branch stood at an average of 13.

Sales to FTBs:

• The number of sales made to FTBs stood at 27 per cent in April, which remains the same as March.

Mark Hayward, Chief Policy Advisor, Propertymark, comments:

“It is phenomenal to see demand for housing breaking records, as house buyers continue to fuel the post Covid economy. However, the continued imbalance of supply and demand is a concern and has led to a strong sellers’ market with properties being snapped up quickly at high prices. We look forward to the much-needed rebalancing of the market, and we hope the Planning Bill outlined in the Queen’s Speech encourages the development of more housing, particularly in more affordable areas, as most of the development taking place is in areas that are unaffordable to first-time and lower income buyers, although the Governments First Homes initiative will be a much-needed boost.”

Kindly shared by Propertymark