17th
Apr 2017
According to an estate agents body's February Housing report, the month's house sales were the highest in ten years.
Their members' branch averaged in February eleven house sales and it was ten years ago in September 2007, that the average branch sales was more than ten. In January average sales per branch was eight whereas unsurprisingly it was lower in December with six sales.
74% of February's house sales were lower than the advertised price which shows that sellers were more than happy with their profit made, rather than sticking to their guns.
First time buyers' sales were lower in February as they fell to 22% from 30% in January.
In January the number of properties on the branches' books was 38 which increased to 44 in February and the corresponding month of last year agents only had 35 properties on their books. The number of properties available to buy on estate agents’ books rose to 44 in February, whereas January had 38 per branch.
Both January and February had the same amount of homebuyers per branch of 425.
When asked about the Housing White Paper only 7% of estate agents expected that the measures would have very little impact on the housing crisis. 43% believed that the measures would not make any difference at all whereas 39% thought that they could help but at that moment were unable to say how.
The Chief Executive of the estate agents body, Mark Hayward, said: “The number of sales agreed reaching a ten-year high indicates the housing market is moving in the right direction.
“However, first time buyers need to be a priority – the number of sales made to the group dipped in February, when it should be growing. As house prices continue to rise, the market’s most vulnerable buyers are being priced out and the only way to address this is to increase housing stock.”
He finished by saying: “The Government has pledged yet again to build more homes, but our members aren’t feeling optimistic about the plans. If promises are kept and we see construction sites set up across the UK, we’ll be in a better position in a few years than the stark reality we will be facing if this doesn’t happen.”
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