This week on the UK Property Market Stat Show, special guest Iain McKenzie, of The Guild, and Chris Watkin talk about the current state of play in the UK housing sector for the week ending Sunday 1st October 2023.

Watkin says despite the naysayers and pessimistic headlines dominating the media, the UK property market is consistently defying the doom-mongers, showcasing robust level in house sales.

Furthermore, there is a notable decline in the number of sales falling through, proving the resilience and strength of the market against negative predictions.

The headlines in brief:

+ Highest number of UK gross residential property sales since end of July 2023

+ Residential property sale fall through percentage rate lowest since early June 2023

+ Highest number of net residential property sales since end of June 2023

Looking at key statistics in more detail.

·   New Properties to the market (listings): The number of listings last week was 32,640. The 2023 YTD running weekly average stands strong at 32,693.

Average listing price: The average listing price was significantly higher for the third week to £428,873. The 2023 running weekly average of £432,292.

Price reductions: 23,810 price reductions were seen last week. The 2023 running weekly average is 20,081.

Average asking price of properties being reduced: This week’s average asking price of reduced properties is £411,066. The 2023 running weekly average of £403,292.

Number of properties sold (gross sales): Gross sales increased from last week’s gross sales figures. Total number of gross sales in the UK last week was 21,535. For comparison, the 2023 running weekly average is 21,807 weekly sales (stc).

Average asking price of properties sold STC this week: The average asking price of the properties selling last week was £352,318. The 2023 running weekly average of £357,338.

Sale fall throughs: Sale fall throughs dropped significantly last week to a 26.55% sale fall through rate (sale fall through rate percentage is the number of sales fall throughs for the week expressed as a percentage of gross sales for the week). The 2023 running weekly average is 25.58% (although, don’t forget, in Q4 2022, the average was North of 38%). The seven-year long-term average is 24.3%.

Net sales this week: Net Sales jumped by 4.72% from the week before to 15,817. The running weekly average since July is 14,772 per week.

Net sales year-to-date: Despite the challenges, the year-to-date net sales of 638,000 showcase despite the challenging economic news, the market is 10% behind the 2017-2019 average.

In the last 20 minutes of the show, there is the usual local focus, and this week it is on Stoke-On-Trent.