Commenting on the latest Index results, Stephen Watson, Managing Director, Agency Express, said: "Without doubt, the bad weather experienced up and down the country in the first couple of weeks of the year put a lot of people’s plans on hold. We also saw more activity in December than normal as house buyers rushed to complete to avoid Stamp Duty. It’s been a disappointing start to the year for house sales but the underlying trend is one of recovery. We fully expect February to be a bumper month as the activity that was postponed from January comes through and the news that the UK has exited recession should provide another confidence boost to the market."
Further encouragement can be found when you compare January 2010 results with those of January last year. Only four regions - the South West, East Anglia, Central England and London - suffered a lower level of sales. Indeed, there were massive increases in the North East (84.1%), Scotland (74.2%), East Midlands (53.3%) and the North West (42.1%).
There is certainly evidence that we can expect things in the housing market to start moving this Spring as the number of houses that were put up ‘For Sale’ in January was up 38.2% on December. Every region saw an increase with only two cities seeing a decrease - Leicester (-4.4%) and York (-46.0%). The East Midlands was the most prolific part of the country with a rise of 131.5% led by Nottingham which saw a 225.0% increase in the number of ‘For Sale’ boards erected. The North East with a 126.5% increase, the West Midlands (84.2%), Wales (61.3%) and London (60.9%) also witnessed very large increase in properties going on the market.
The top 10 cities for new 'For Sale' instructions were Nottingham, Bristol, Southampton, Birmingham, Brighton, Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Colchester and Exeter. |
