England/Wales Home Sales ‘Drop 7% In 2016’
If you’re thinking of using estate agents in Sunderland or elsewhere to help you put your house on the market, you might want to hold your horses and wait to see what the market does over the next few months.
New research from Lloyds Bank has just revealed that more than 80 per cent of towns across England and Wales saw a dip in house sales last year, with sales down by seven per cent in 2016. All regions saw a decrease in sales compared to 2015, but the largest drops were recorded in Greater London and the south-east which saw falls of 18 per cent and ten per cent respectively.
However, it’s important to note that although there has been a dip in home sales over the last year or so, this is still an improvement on what was seen five years ago when we were all trying to recover from the recession. As a whole, the number of sales in England and Wales rose by 29 per cent between 2011 and 2016.
And even now, with this fall in sales being seen, the first-time buyer housing market is still seeing levels of growth. It’s now sat at 49 per cent, which is the highest sales have been since 1996.
“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,” mortgage director with the bank Andy Mason said.
Saving up for a deposit is actually one of the biggest barriers to buying a new house and many people often find it hard to get enough money together in order to invest in their desired area.
Research from MoneySuperMarket recently revealed that in 75 local authorities around the UK, the average salaried couple would actually need to have more than a 20 per cent deposit so they could invest in an average priced house.
There are options available to you if you are struggling to get your deposit together. You could, for example, consider shared ownership where you buy part of a property and then rent the rest. Or the Help to Buy Scheme could see you own your own new-build property – and you typically only need to have a deposit of five per cent to go down this route.