NEW DATA SHOWS A POSITIVE START TO 2023 FOR THE ENTIRE PROPERTY MARKET
The housing market may be slowing and property prices falling from their peak levels, but the year has seen a positive start according to recent research from Rightmove and TwentyCi.
Rightmove’s latest house price index showed the average asking price for a property jumped 0.9% in January, up £3,301 from the month before. Meanwhile, The Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed house prices were up 10.2% in the year to November.
TwentyCi’s data reveals that as of 19 January shows there are 472,341 properties currently on the market across the UK, while there are 376,518 homes sold subject to contract (SSTC) and 269,404 property sales were completed during the past three months.
The South East continues to be the busiest with 74,971 new instructions during January, followed by Inner London with 54,332 and the North West with 50,515 new listings. The region with the least number of properties coming onto the market is Northern Ireland with 8,529 new instructions, followed by the North East, which had 16,868.
The South East also currently has the most properties listed as SSTC, with 63,035, followed by 42,353 in the East of England and 41,305 in the South West. Northern Ireland saw the least activity, with 11,314 properties listed as SSTC.
The most completions took place in the South East, with 43,455. This was followed by the East of England, which had 28,819 completions and the North West, with 28,424 completions.
There is good news on the economic outlook for 2023, with The Bank of England publishing an updated forecast for the economy, alongside the tenth consecutive rate increase, last week. The Bank said that inflation “is likely to have peaked” and a recession would be less severe than previously predicted, but said Brexit was damaging the economy more quickly than it had anticipated.
Philip Farrell, CCO & Co-Founder of Offr, commented: “Whilst the property market faces some challenges in 2023, the year has kicked off with good news, despite all the doom and gloom in the media.
“Industry experts are warning that property prices will continue to drop, but the jury is out on how much. Despite rising interest rates and the cost of living, home mover confidence is proving positive.
“The Bank of England’s recent announcement that inflation may have peaked and a recession in the UK would be shorter and shallower than previously feared. In the short term, sellers will be forced to drop asking prices. Zoopla’s recent research shows that sellers are having to discount the prices of their homes of between 3% and 4% to reach a sale.
“With the current cost of living crisis, rising interest rates and record high house prices, it is easy to see why property buyers might be more nervous about the process. We are helping agents deliver a better service to vendors and buyers by speeding up property transactions through digitising over 85% of the process.
“Up until now, property transactions have largely been restricted and totally paper-based, with no easy, fast, and secure way of buying properties cross-border available.”
Offr has two offices in London and Dublin. All the technology has been designed and developed in-house, with no outsourcing. Offr works for all transaction types including Private Treaty, Auction, Tender, New Homes, Commercial Sales, Residential Lettings and Commercial Leases.
Offr has commercial partnerships with DocuSign; Ooba, the largest mortgage provider in South Africa; Onate, an alternative mortgage provider in Ireland; and Thirdfort, a fast-scaling provider of Identity as a Service, and Anti-Money Laundering checks in the UK.
Customers include well known international estate agency brands such as Knight Frank, Cushman & Wakefield, Savills, as well as Irish firms including Lisney, Sherry FitzGerald, CBRE, and Quillsen, alongside a myriad of independent firms.
For further information please visit offr.io or email info@offr.io.
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