Agency Express is the UK's largest ‘For Sale’ sign contractor, working with 18 of the country’s top 20 estate agents. Every time a sign movement request is made (whether it’s to erect a new board, update to sold, or remove on completion) the information is tracked ‘real time’, using the Agency Express unique online SignMaster management system. In this way, Agency Express is able to closely monitor daily activity across a large and representative sector of the UK housing market.
Most, if not all, other UK property indices report historically on what has happened to property prices in the preceding months, quarter(s) and years. These are mainly produced by two distinct types of organisations. Firstly, the Financial institutions, which report only on properties on which they themselves have lent or valued, according to their own current lending criteria – hence the frequent differences in the increases / decreases in property prices between lending institutions. Secondly, there are the reports that are produced by membership organisations, which obviously can only report on information provided by their members and which normally rely on the accurate (manual or otherwise) reporting by the individual members themselves.
The Agency Express Property Activity Index has two distinct differences: it reflects the actual sale status of an independent range of property across the UK housing market and it collects this information on a daily basis, including time taken from a property being placed on the market to completion of sale.
Agency Express currently has coverage of, and can accurately report on, 87% of all postcoded areas of the UK. By necessity, due to the limited property markets, it is not possible to provide representative coverage in very sparsely populated areas, such as the Highlands of Scotland and central Wales.
The Agency Express Property Activity Index is issued monthly on the 1st or 2nd working day of each month. In addition, an interim report is also being planned around the middle of each month, reporting on the visible trends emerging so far that month.
Information on the Agency Express Property Activity Index database extends back to January 2007.
Agency Express also manages ‘To Let’ boards and correlates information on the lettings market. Currently, this information is not released as part of the Property Activity Index but will be in the future.
The Agency Express Property Activity Index does not include information on the commercial market.
Yes, Agency Express is totally independent of any financial institution or membership organisation. In addition, it’s worth noting that the data is uploaded by estate agents directly and not by Agency Express owner-operators.
Agency Express reports on the monthly activity within the UK property market based on the actual volume and status of ‘For Sale’ board movements (erected, changed to ‘Sold’, changed back to ‘For Sale’ if a sale falls through etc) and therefore provides a unique indictor of real time activity within the property market. Please note, Agency Express does not correlate or report on property prices.
The Property Activity Index may be used in any activity relevant to the UK housing market, by estate agents, the media, individual reference, etc. The Index should always be credited to Agency Express.
