Twenty Twenty Vision - Delving into Data: The UK property market in diagrams

For this edition of Delving into Data, we've created some handy diagrams, looking at various features of the UK property market. 

Average length of time on market

Below is a heat map of the UK where the measure is average length on market. Red areas represent where properties are on the market for longer periods of time, and the lighter green are the shorter time on market areas.

What this shows us is where properties are selling quickly, or in other words are in greater demand. We can see that the Midlands and the South of England are strong performers in this regard, but we are also seeing areas in Scotland such as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk performing favourably compared to some areas in England.

Spread of sale percentage

The following heat map shows the spread of sale% through the UK, in other words the amount of property on market in that area. The green represents more property available.

When we consider simple supply and demand logic, we’d expect to see property selling faster in areas where there is less property available, but that’s not always the case. We can see that those Scottish areas mentioned earlier don’t have a lot properties available, and so we’d expect to see shorter length on market. We can also see that there isn’t as much sale property available in London, but it’s not selling as quickly as we’d expect.

To better visualise this, we can use a scatter graph with property available on the vertical axis and average length on market on the horizontal. Applying median lines to these axes segments these postcode areas in the same way as a BCG growth-share matrix: 

We can define these 4 segments in the same way as the BCG matrix:

• Top Left – These are areas where a lot of property is available, but it’s selling fairly quickly. It could be construed that property is in higher demand in these areas. Areas in this segment include Northampton, Dartford, Guildford and Southend.
• Top Right – These areas follow the supply and demand logic where there is a lot of property available, but it’s on the market for a long time. This imples demand is low is these areas. Areas in this segment include Blackpool, Lancaster and Torquay.
• Bottom Left – These areas also follow the supply and demand logic where properties aren’t on the market for very long and this is propbably caused by a lack of supply. These areas include Glasgow, Edinburgh and Birmingham.
• Bottom Right – This is potentially where the property market is stagnating. There isn’t much property avaibable, but it’s not selling very well. This segments includes many areas of Scotland, plus areas of central London.

To read more of our Delving Into Data property insight posts, click here.

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 *This doesn’t take into account property value or property types which may skew the demand in certain areas, like London.