Date Published 26 June 2025
Many of you may be wondering what on earth is going on in the property market at the moment. Well, I have written a little market update in the hope of passing on information which I hope you will find interesting.
As some of you may know, it has been horribly quiet this year and the market is pretty tough. We have seen markets like this before and no doubt will see it again in the future but for now, how can we adjust?
So, our problem is one of imbalance. There are far more properties on the market than there are buyers in a position to do anything about it. The last time the property stock levels were this high was in 2019 but at that time, the economy was in a better state, mortgage rates were low and we had plenty of buyers, so there was a good balance.
Since then, we have had Covid, the Ukraine war and resulting energy price increases, bank interest rate hikes and now on top of all that, the Middle East problems, Donald Trump (!) and a new UK government.
The last of these (new government) have made significant changes to a number of things which are now affecting the market significantly. These are:-
1. increase in stamp duty for first time buyers and everyone else.
2. further increase in second home stamp duty to an extra 5%
3. proposed changes to the EPCs required for rental properties
4. changes now implemented for landlords on rental properties
5. double council tax on second homes
Earlier in the year, we saw an increase in First Time Buyers entering the market countrywide, to try to beat the stamp duty changes. After March, that activity ceased as the deadline had passed and we saw considerable decline in buyer activity.
With landlords leaving the rental market in numbers and people selling second homes adding to those who are trying to sell, we have an ever increasing number of properties coming to market. This has resulted in many properties reducing their asking prices and most now coming to market at lower prices than last year.
We have agreed some sales over the past few months, as a percentage of the property stock will always sell but many vendors are feeling frustrated with the lack of activity (We are too!) and who can blame them.
In addition to this, we are seeing an awful lot of agreed sales falling through, so that's not good news either.
There is some hope on the horizon though, if you have the resilience to wait it out.
Some of the properties that have been on the market a long time are starting to be withdrawn, with some sellers deciding to give up and wait until next year. If this continues to happen and the numbers coming off market grows, then those still in the market will find an increase in activity as a better balance returns.
The other thing that could happen is that the government may start looking at some of the policies and consider making changes. I only mention this because a good number of celebrities and bloggers (people like Kirsty Allsop) are making some noise about the slow down in the property market and how this will impact the economy. We can only hope that the government will take note.
Like it or not, much of our economy revolves around the housing market, so it has an important part to play.
