UK housing market activity ‘steady’ despite upcoming election

Buyers and sellers are proving determined to press ahead with their home moves, despite the looming General Election, research has shown.

Not only has the property market’s activity proved steady since the election was called on May 22, but it has also remained higher than last year in terms of demand and supply.    

 TwentyEA, part of the TwentyCi group, examined the data across the 14 days following 22 May (23 May to 5 June) and found the number of SSTCs was 51,025, a 9% rise on 46,802 from the same period in 2023.  

At the same time, the supply of new instructions was 70,049 – a rise of 3.4% from 67,753 last year. Both the demand and supply metrics are more aligned with the same 14 days in 2019 – the last normal market prior to the pandemic.  

This is a continuation of the activity seen since the start of the year, with the market generally performing well and closely comparable with 2019. The supply of new instructions for the first five months of 2024 was at a six year high of 763,651. This figure was up by 13% compared with the same period last year and 5% in 2019. Demand (the number of SSTCs) rose by 17% from 2023 to 529,172, increasing 5.5% from 2019.  

The supply/demand ratio was 69.3% from January to May 2024. This was slightly up on last year’s 67.1% but back in-line with the more normal market of 2019 when it was 69%. 

Across all regions of the UK, supply levels were higher than last year. The table below shows the five areas where they increased the most.  

Area 

Number of new instructions 

(Jan – May 2024) 

Number of new instructions 

(Jan – May 2023) 

% increase YoY 

South West 

80,628 

69,197 

16.5% 

South East 

  130,166 

  112,887 

15.3% 

Scotland  

  45,863 

39,946 

14.8% 

Inner London 

65,705 

 57,321 

14.6% 

East of England  

86,882 

76,226 

14.0% 

Since 2019, new instructions have increased the most in Inner London having risen by 26.6%. 

The table below shows the five regions where demand increased the most over the last year.  

Area 

Number of SSTCs 

(Jan – May 2024) 

Number of SSTCs 

(Jan – May 2023) 

% increase YoY 

Outer London 

22,235 

 18,657 

19.2% 

East of England 

55,762 

46,820 

19.1% 

Inner London 

32,073 

27,078 

18.4% 

West Midlands 

43,714 

 36,963 

18.3% 

East Midlands 

39,607 

33,497 

18.2% 

 Since 2019, demand has increased the most in Inner London, a rise of 21%.  

Katy Billany, executive director of TwentyEA, said: “With activity remaining steady despite the upcoming election, the market is looking pretty upbeat and is comparable with 2019, the period prior to the pandemic.  

There’s a healthy balance in the number of deals being struck compared with the volume of new instructions coming to market.  

Since the start of the year to the end of May, there was a 17.2% rise in the number of price changes compared with last year but this was most likely a sign of sellers becoming more realistic that the frenzied markets of 2021 and 2022 were firmly behind us.  

Fall throughs increased by 11.5% since 2023 and we believe this is closely linked to affordability issues such as the rise in mortgage rates, which have given some buyers cold feet or left them with a change of circumstances. As rates come down, stability will gather pace.” 

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