Robert Bell & Company September Housing Market Update

Rightmove Reports the housing market is still on the move!

"With all the economic upheaval we have witnessed over the last few days, I thought it might prove useful to all our clients to report on how the property portal giants, Rightmove and Zoopla, view market, and what our sales teams have been seeing working day to day at the coal face."

 

Rightmove September Housing Market Report

Healthy number of sales agreed

  • The number of sales agreed on Tuesday was the highest number in one day since early August Limited impact on demand so far.
  • On Monday and Tuesday, demand from buyers (sending leads to agents and developers) was down just 3% compared with other Mondays and Tuesdays this month.

Average September rate of fall throughs

  • Over the past few days, we have seen fall throughs in line with what we’ve seen for all of September.

No change to the ‘monthly rate’ of price reductions

  • On Monday and Tuesday 1.6% of all properties were reduced. This is the same level of reductions that we saw on other Mondays and Tuesdays this month.

Mortgage products withdrawn, but there is still choice

  • A number of mortgage products have been withdrawn, but according to Moneyfacts there are currently over 2,600 mortgage products available in the market.

A longer-term look  

  • Demand up versus pre-pandemic average. Buyer demand over the last month was 20% higher than the ‘pre-pandemic’ five-year average.

Steady improvement to supply

  • New sellers have been picking up, and are now 8% higher than 2019 levels.

Average asking prices sitting just below record levels

  • Asking prices are 15% higher than they were two years ago, and they are just a few thousand pounds shy of a price record.  

Second stepper asking prices remain at record level

  • The second stepper category (3 beds and 4 beds, excluding 4 bed detached homes) are at a record national asking price of £340,513.

Tim’s summary comment

'' The number of attractive mortgage deals tumbling this week is a bitter pill to swallow for those who want to move, and those with fixed terms due to end. We are monitoring activity carefully in real-time, and for now what we’re seeing is that the housing market’s very much still moving.''

Zoopla’s House Price Report for September

  • Please see their report attached here.
  • An interesting more down to earth market assessment in many ways, looking at the potential positive impact of the Stamp Duty reductions on the market, versus the negative of further mortgage interest rate rises.

The Robert Bell & Company outlook

  • We do agree with many of Rightmove’s comments. Whilst everyone accepts that the full impact of such turbulent economic/political events on the housing market will remain unclear for some time, at present there are no reports suggesting we are seeing any significant unravelling of the market, which was already prior to these events calmly slowing down in terms of both demand and price growth.
  • Rightmove do not comment on previous reports that the number of price reductions have increased by 30% year on year, although it must be said that they have been rising from a very low level.
  • Over this turbulent week none of our office sales teams have reported any sales falling through because of a buyer having had a confirmed mortgage offer withdrawn.
  • New instructions have responded well to the market and the number of buyer inquiries we received corresponds well with our expectations for September.

There are three important housing market reports to be published this weekend/into next week from the RICS, the Halifax and the Nationwide Building Society.

A view expressed by one client – it is a time to "keep calm and carry on!" An appropriately British adage for times such as these.

We will be looking to provide more market updates as events unfold.

Tony Wing

DipSurv MRICS FNAEA

Residential Sales Director

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