Monthly Property Sales Transactions Reaches 10 Year High

New data reveals that Monthly property sales transactions reaches 10 year high in February of this year. Proving that Brexit is having little impact on sentiment in the UK property market. However, sales to first time buyers fell, according to the latest figures. The data from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) indicated that the volume of transactions in a month increased to 11 per branch and the last time this figure surpassed 10 per branch was in September 2007. The NAEA says that this is a strong signal that buyer confidence is growing. And the market as transaction volumes are up from eight sales per branch in January and six per branch in December 2016.

First time buyers

Monthly property sales rising to a 10 year high; shows that it is not good news for first time buyers. Furthermore, the data shows that there were fewer first time buyers entering the market; with the proportion of sales to this segment of the market falling to 22% in February down from 30% in January. ‘The number of sales agreed reaching a 10 year high indicates the housing market is moving in the right direction. However, first time buyers need to be a priority as the number of sales made to the group dipped in February when it should be growing,’ said Mark Hayward, NAEA chief executive. ‘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. The Government have 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,’. Investors a now opting for higher yielding properties in Regional Markets, which are better performing the countries capital. Manchester recently recorded the fastest growing house prices at 8.8%  Read more here