New research from Yopa, the full-service estate agents, has shown that while London may have seen house prices fall at the sharpest rate of all regions of England and Wales, the capital’s property market is far from quiet, having accounted for more than 1 in 10 of all transactions to have taken place over the last 12 months across England and Wales.
Yopa analysed sold price records from the Land Registry for every property sale to have completed across England and Wales over the last 12 months (December 2022 to November 2023 – latest available). YOPA then looked at which areas of the market have been busiest both in terms of the price paid for a property and the activity seen across 12 major cities.
The research shows that, over the last 12 months, 472,890 sales have completed across England and Wales.
Homes sold for between £100,000 to £199,999 have accounted for 24% of all property sold over the last 12 months, while those sold between £200,000 to £299,999 account for a quarter of all transactions.
However, perhaps surprisingly, homes sold for £500,000 and above account for the third highest percentage of transactions, with almost one in five (18%) falling into this price category.
This high level of market activity has no doubt been driven by the London market, with savvy buyers taking advantage of discounted property values across the capital. In fact, the latest UK House Price Index, released last week, shows that while London remains the only region with an average house price of over £500,000, it has also seen the largest reduction in house prices in the last year, down 6%.
But while house prices may be falling, the London market is far from quiet. The analysis by Yopa shows that some 50,728 homes have sold across the capital in the last 12 months, accounting for 11% of total homes sold across England and Wales in this period.
To put this performance into perspective, Bristol and Manchester ranked second of the 12 major cities analysed by Yopa. However, the respective 7,556 (2%) and 7,195 (2%) homes sold across both cities over the last 12 months account for a combined total of just 4% of total homes sold across England and Wales.
Each of the other 12 cities analysed accounted for around 1% of total sales during the same period.
CEO of Yopa, Verona Frankish, commented:
“London house prices have fallen at a sharper rate than any other UK region and so you might assume that there is little to no appetite for homes within the capital. However, this simply isn’t the case and more than one in 10 of all homes sold in the last 12 months have been located in London.
This suggests that while sellers are having to lower their asking price in order to sell, buyer confidence in the capital remains high.
This level of market activity is all the more impressive when you compare it to other major cities and it’s clear that while house prices are yet to rebound, London remains the engine room of the UK property market.”
