Value of UK house sales to jump 46 per cent this year but London lags behind
The total value of houses sold in the UK is set to reach £461bn this year, a 46 per cent jump on 2020, according to new data.
Property website Zoopla predicts that the current housing market boom is likely to surge to its busiest rate for 14 years.
The forecast comes after data last week showed that UK house prices rose by 10.2 per cent in March, its highest growth rate since August 2007, before the financial crisis hit.
The unprecedented growth has been fuelled by an extension to the stamp duty holiday and new government guarantees for mortgages.
Zoopla said that it expects house sales to reach 1.52m this year, which would put 2021 in the top 10 busiest years since 1959.
London lags behind
Demand for family homes is diverting buyer interest away from London, with interest in properties in Wales and Yorkshire surging.
London continues to trail when it comes to house price growth at 1.9 per cent, the slowest regional rate across the UK for the sixth consecutive month.
Homes are taking just under two months to sell in inner London, two weeks longer than the 2017 to 2019 average.
Four central London boroughs are registering price falls for a third month in a row, including the City, Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, and Hammersmith & Fulham.
These areas have been particularly affected by the shutdown of business due to the pandemic.
The capital ‘will recover’
Despite London’s declining dominance in the housing market, analysts believe the UK’s city centres will recover and thrive as workers return.
“The pandemic has pushed London to the bottom of the house price inflation league, but as we face into what seems to be a solid recovery, there can be little doubt that it will soon be gaining places and rising up the table,” said John Eastgate, managing director at Shawbrook Bank.
“With solid fundamentals underpinning the property market even after the end of the stamp duty holiday, there’s a strong argument to suggest that our cities, London in particular, represent good value today for both homeowners and investors.”