Property sales “drop like a stone” according to HMRC’s figures
Property sales “drop like a stone” according to HMRC’s figures, according to the verdict by a leading business analyst.
Sarah Coles of Hargreaves Lansdown is commenting on HMRC’s figures for April, just released, showing that residential sales were 67,220 in April – down 29 per cent from the previous month and 32 per cent less than a year earlier.
Seasonally adjusted, the figures are down eight per cent on the previous month but are still a hefty 25 per cent lower than a year ago.
This means that aside from the onset of the pandemic, this is the worst April for sales in a decade.
Sarah Coles says:
“April’s decline is a continuation of the miserable trend we’ve seen since the beginning of 2023.
“We had a shocking January, a worse February, and after a brief hiatus in March, April saw us revert to the downward path again.”
She anticipates some respite in the early summer, on the back of positive figures from Zoopla and RICs, but she warns that bad news is set to return later in the year.
Sarah Coles continues:
“Sales later in the summer will reflect what’s happening in the market right now, which may not be pretty.
“The rise in core inflation in figures released in May saw the market price in rate rises to around 5.5 per cent.
“There’s a reasonable chance this is an over-reaction, and more evidence of a global slowdown could take some of the heat out of the swaps market and bring these expectations down.
“However, it meant seven per cent of mortgages were withdrawn, and a raft of repricing – pushing rates up.
“In the coming weeks, this could back off a little if emerging news about inflation and the economy helps dampen rate expectations.
“It could take a while for mortgage rates to fall back, and it’s likely to disrupt the market in the interim.
“If we do get more depressing news about the economy, that could also persuade people to put purchases on hold, which means the property market could be on for a difficult summer all round.”
Kindly shared by Estate Agent Today
Main article photo courtesy of Pixabay
