Market Steady in May ahead of Election
With the snap Election called in April, May was always going to be a litmus test of the UK property market in terms of how consumers would react to yet more political upheaval. However, the positive news, as can now be evidenced by the data from last month, is that most factors remained steady with very little movement in terms of key indicators, meaning that the market was positively underpinned by the time the Election took place on June 8th.
Looking at data from last month, we can observe the following:
- 1.1% increase in average purchase price, and correspondingly a 1.1% increase in typical purchase loan size
- Minimal change in the average size of remortgage month on month, highlighted by a 0.2% decrease
- Average purchase prices for First Time Buyers remained broadly unchanged on previous month with a 2.95% increase
Other key factors, such as the latest data from HMRC suggesting that Residential property transactions for May were up both month on month and year on year, all provide the new Housing and Planning Minister Alok Sharma with a solid foundation to work from, but with the formation of a confidence and supply arrangement with the DUP, when it comes to solving the housing crisis clearly what’s needed now is a true ‘cross-party committee approach’. The only way that any pragmatic solutions can be found is by taking the politics out of the situation and working with the industry to understand what is actually achievable and practical, bearing in mind that the companies who will be delivering upon these promises are in many cases, privately owned or listed and therefore, don’t have ‘registered charity’ on their letterhead.
