Welcome to our March 2023 Homemover Pulse where we take the pulse of the present UK property market and give a snapshot of current homemover activity.
With the UK’s largest and most sophisticated homemover database, we have unique access to data on house prices and residential property at every stage in the purchase journey. Here’s the latest update on the UK’s housing market.
Property Market Summary March 2023
- New Instructions: 551,212
- Sold Subject to Contract: 353,062
- Completions in the last three months: 232,068
UK House Price Growth
The average house price for a property in the UK is £285,476, a 2.1% increase since last year.
According to the Halifax House Price Index, “Recent reductions in mortgage rates, improving consumer confidence, and a continuing resilience in the labour market are arguably helping to stabilise prices following the falls seen in November and December.”
The full report is available here.
The current state of the owner-occupied housing market: March 2023
551,212 properties are currently on the market across the UK, 353,062 properties have been sold subject to contract (SSTC), and 232,068 properties have been exchanged.
Below, the key stages of the home buying process have been broken down by stages and region.
Nick McConnell, Commercial Director at TwentyCi says of the latest data:
“Completed sales volumes continue to remain relatively strong. January was down just -3.2% compared to the pre-Covid average for the month. Furthermore the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has now forecast that the UK economy is on track to shrink less than expected this year and avoid the two-quarters of negative growth which mark a technical recession.
The brighter outlook chimed with other measures of Britain’s economy including purchasing managers’ index (PMI) surveys and consumer confidence data that have improved in recent weeks. Whilst the pressures on the cost of living and interest rates remain significant the arrival of spring coincides with green shoots of optimism”
Current new instructions
Our new instructions data covers all residential properties in the UK that are currently available for sale. At the time of publication, there were 551,212 residential properties available for sale across the UK.
Continuing its streak, the South East saw the highest number of new instructions, with 88,540. This is an increase of 4,308 compared to data in our February 2023 Pulse. Inner London came in second place, with 61,117 new instructions.
The region with the least number of new instructions was Northern Ireland, with 9,003 new instructions. This is an increase of 147 new instructions compared to our February Pulse.
Current properties with sales agreed
Our sales agreed data covers all properties in the UK which are sold subject to contract and currently in the conveyancing journey heading to completion. Sale agreed figures can be seen as an indicator of present demand, showing where people are currently in the process of moving. At the time of publication, there are 353,062 properties across the UK that are sales agreed.
Similar to new property instructions, the South East saw the most sales agreed, and Northern Ireland saw the least.
The 57,421 exchanges in the South East is a slight drop compared to February. Similarly, the 10,712 exchanges that took place in Northern Ireland is a drop of 134 compared to last month.
Completions in the last three months
Our completions data covers all residential properties in the UK which have undergone contract completion in the last three months. This data set, therefore, covers all homes which have been newly purchased and moved into. In the three months to March 2023, there have been 232,068 contract completions across the UK.
The South East remains in the top position with 37,178 completions in the last three months to March. This was followed by the North West, with 24,921 completions and the East of England, with 24,898 completions.
While there have been increases and decreases in movements, there have been no major fluctuations in 2023 so far, and the residential property market appears to be resilient to the macroeconomics occurring.