New research from Lloyds Bank (LON:LLOY) has shown house sales to drop by almost a third over the past year.
The number of home sales has dropped due to high prices and stamp duty bills, leading to a drop in home moves by seven percent in England and Wales to 848,857. This is however much less of a drop than seen in London, where the number of house sales fell by 18 percent.
The biggest falls in London included markets such as Hackney and Southwark, which were down 26 percent and 24 percent respectively.
Andy Mason of Lloyds Bank said: “The recovery in the housing market has stumbled during the past year with sales declining in all regions,”
“Despite record low-interest rates and government schemes, such as Help to Buy, sales remain significantly below the levels seen at the height of the last housing boom.”
“The decrease in the amount of people moving home could be caused by movers not being able to find the right home, in the right location or those who don’t have enough equity in their current home to put down as a large enough deposit for their next mortgage.”
“Add to this that the average cost of moving home is close to £11,000, with costs in London over £31,000 and these factors make it more challenging for those looking to move home.”
A key factor in the decline of house sales in due to the near all-time high house prices. According to Halifax, the average house price in the UK is £220,706, up 3.3 percent over the past year.
According to Nationwide Index, house prices have risen by 29 percent since 2006 nationally but a huge 93 percent in London.
Commission in the UK has remained more steady.
“Commission has reduced in percentage terms but due to house price inflation, the amount agents receive is not vastly different. It’s true that we aren’t seeing a raft of closures; when you look at the amount of commission received and number of sales that take place it does suggest it’s not sustainable in the long term,” said Mark Hayward of the National Association of Estate Agents.