FTB sales increase in August compared to May
The number of first-time buyer sales in August leapt by over a quarter compared to May, according to the latest First-Time Buyer Tracker from Your Move and Reeds Rains.
August experienced 30,200 completed first-time buyer transactions, compared to 23,700 in May–the month of the General Election. This represents an increase of 27.4% on a three-month basis and means that 6,500 more first-time buyers completed property transactions in August than in May.
On a monthly basis, first-time buyer transactions matched July’s total of 30,200 sales, meaning that completed transactions are still at their highest level since August 2007, a post-recession high for the second month running. This makes the June to August period the strongest summer in eight years, with 89,800transactions being completed by first-time buyers. By contrast, during the same summer period last year only 84,900 sales were completed.
Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains, comments:“An end-of-summer surge in first-time buyer activity is in full swing.With May’s General Election a distant memory, many first-time buyers are basking in the political stability that comes with a majority Government and a fixed-term Parliament. They are also benefitting from aBritish economy that is beginning to roar. As real-term wages rise and job security is taken as a given, renters are feeling, in ever larger numbers, that they have ability to overcome cost caveats and turn their property-owning dreams into reality.”
The report in full can be seen via the LSL Property Services website: http://www.lslps.co.uk/
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