UK Lettings And Sales Industry Bounces Back After Restrictions Are Eased

With the Property Freeze lasting a long 7 weeks, it’s safe to say that we’re glad to be out the other side.

Affecting both the lettings and sales sectors, we’re pleased to see our industry bouncing back. Restrictions on moving to a new house were lifted on May 13th and since then, the figures have continued to tell the story of a resilient industry. While across the country we have faced our ups and downs and still have many questions, here we give you some of the most important figures and information on what’s been going on.

Rightmove saw their busiest ever day on May 27th with an 18% rise in activity compared to the same day in 2019. With Rightmove as the market leader, welcoming an average of 127.5 million visitors per month, this is a great figure for our industry and an even better one during a global pandemic.

Although it is thought the bounce back is as a result of pent up demand which has built during the property freeze; a whopping 372,000 people had to put their moves on hold during the 7-week period. Zoopla have announced that property sales across the most of England have reverted back to the same levels as before lockdown rather quickly, even though it has also been found that the average asking price of agreed sales in the last week is at 6% higher than that of prices in the same week of June last year.

While on the whole it is natural to see that agreed sales are currently 47% down across the board, it is key to note that during the market pause, agreed sales were down a total of 90% - showing a great rebound in just 4 weeks. It is also important to note that this varies across the country, with coastal areas like Devon, Cornwall and Bournemouth seeing the largest ever jump in buyer interest and northern locations such as Warrington, Manchester and Wigan seeing a rise too.

According to Rightmove, the number of new rental listings is currently 4% lower than this time last year with numbers in the 2nd week of April falling 64% below 2019’s levels. However since May 13th, both new applications and completed lets have spiked with June 1st seeing new tenancy applications above levels seen in 2019 by 111%, and completed applications in the market standing at 70% of 2019’s levels; this number has been seen rising week on week – a great news for the rental market.

All in all, the sales market is showing great signs of recovery, although it is thought that the rental market is likely to recover first. Miles Shipside, Rightmove’s Director, thinks that with less rental properties available, rental prices could go up which will allow landlords to be more particular with picking their tenants.