The cities that witnessed the most dramatic falls in house sales in June were Birmingham down 34.7%, Nottingham down 32%, Exeter down 31.7%, Southampton down 27.8% and Glasgow down 27.4%. Only a few cities witnessed an increase in monthly house sales with Leicester leading the way with a 44.0% rise followed by Manchester up 37.0% and Milton Keynes up 30.1%.
Commenting on the latest Index results, Stephen Watson, Managing Director, Agency Express, said: “The heightened interest in the World Cup and the number of games shown live seems to have drawn people’s attention away from closing the deal on their prospective properties. Now that England have crashed out of the tournament after a number of lack lustre displays we can expect homebuyers to return to the housing market with real conviction to get their new property sorted. With interest rates still at record low levels and house prices having stabilised, we can expect to see a surge in house sales in July before the holiday season kicks in.”
However, it wasn’t all bad news in June as there was a small increase of 1.8% in the number of new houses being put up ‘For Sale’ which can be attributed largely to the positive impact that the suspension of HIPs from the home selling process has brought.
The regions that experienced the greatest increase in new ‘For Sale’ listings were the West Midlands, London and the North East which saw rises of 22.3%, 16.0% and 12.7% respectively. On the other hand, Scotland saw a big drop of 14.8%, with the South East falling 7.5%, Central England down 5.6% and the East Midlands down 5.0%.
The cities that had the biggest rise in houses being put up ‘For Sale’ in June were Coventry which saw a huge hike of 55.9%, Colchester up 53.2%, Birmingham up 29.3%, and Cardiff up 14.3%. Several cities saw a decline, with Edinburgh at -22.1%, Glasgow at -18.4% and Milton Keynes at -17.9% seeing the steepest drops. |
