propertytalk Live! - Mixed messages in UK housing market - Garrington

propertytalk Live! - Mixed messages in UK housing market - Garrington
The first three months of the year have given out mixed messages with regards to prices and transaction volumes, and the market remains heavily influenced by wider macro-economic and political factors.

That is the verdict of the latest Q1 market comment from Garrington.

At the end of the quarter, Garrington says we have only just started to see a noticeable increase in property coming to the market, albeit that some asking prices are looking, to say the least, "optimistic". Over recent months, Garrington says we have seen the re-emergence of best and final offers for correctly priced quality homes, and even gazumping for the finest homes.

The Nationwide House Price Index shows encouraging data, indicating that house prices have increased by 0.5% throughout the UK in March, marking the third monthly rise in a four month period. In addition to this, there was also a modest rise of 0.6% in the three-month-on-three-month measure of house prices in March, which is widely considered as a better measure of the underlying trend in the market. The shortage of stock at the start of the year has undoubtedly supported house prices, though the annual change for the UK still remains negative at -0.3%, according to Nationwide.

Data from the Land Registry however, shows a decrease in house prices in February of 0.8%, with a deeper annual fall of -1.7%. It remains clear in all reports that there is an increasing divergence in house price recovery between London and other regions. Despite a -0.5% price change in February, London still has the greatest annual increase of 3.2%. Although some regions have shown positive growth in the last three months, including the East and North West, their overall recovery is still low by comparison.

While Garrington would normally expect to see a levelling off of market activity during the Spring market, it has been surprised by the volume of sellers and their advisors contacting in recent weeks with off-market opportunities. During the first quarter, over 60% of all transactions Garrington agreed for clients were conducted off-market, and all acquisitions made over £3million were on properties not available on the open market. This growing pool of discreet vendors appear to be willing to sell for the right price, the right exit timing and the right buyer.

London's growth is, in part, due to interest from international buyers ...