Scotland is the best country within the UK to run an estate agency, followed by Northern Ireland, England (excl London) and then Wales, data from TwentyEA has shown.
The selection was made based on the following 10 criteria; completion prices, price growth, supply vs stock, likelihood to sell, growth in sales agreed volumes, price reductions, online agent’s market share, time to sell, time to progress a sale and the competition. The results were revealed in a webinar which includes a lively discussion.
Scotland came top in three out of the 10 categories including the shortest time for a property to reach SSTC (48 days), time to progress a sale (88 days) and the competition with just 47 agents per 100,000 residential properties.
|
Category |
Scotland |
England (exclu London) |
London |
Wales |
N Ireland |
UK |
|
Completion prices |
£199,971 |
£281,195 |
£531,212 |
£222,925 |
£185,025 |
£292,924 |
|
Completion price growth (annual price inflation) |
5.4% |
2.4% |
1.4% |
3.5% |
6.4% |
2.8% |
|
Supply volume vs stock volume (percentage of new instructions by residential properties) |
3.4% |
5% |
4.9% |
4.2% |
2.6% |
4.8% |
|
Likelihood to sell |
78.3% |
52.4% |
39.5% |
55.2% |
81.2% |
52.9% |
|
Growth in sales agreed volumes |
11.9% |
17.2% |
16.7% |
12% |
11.4% |
16.3% |
|
Price reduction percentage |
21% |
40.1% |
38.7% |
40.3% |
20% |
38.4% |
|
Online agents’ market share |
4.8% |
5.4 |
3.6% |
5.3% |
3.5% |
5.1% |
|
Av time to sell in days |
48 |
73 |
80 |
83 |
79 |
72 |
|
Av time to progress a sale in days |
88 |
123 |
129 |
112 |
153 |
121 |
|
Competition: active sale agents per 100k properties |
47 |
61 |
137 |
76 |
53 |
59 |
Katy Billany, executive director of TwentyEA, said: “Our data is clear that Scotland’s property market operates with some distinct advantages which benefits agents. Its separate legal system is more transparent and efficient compared with the rest of the UK, positively impacting transactions by cutting the time to sell to just 48 days compared with a UK average of 72.
“In addition, a smaller pool of agents is operating in Scotland with just 47 per 100,000 residential properties compared with a UK average of 59, so there’s less competition when it comes to winning instructions.”
Watch the full webinar:
2024 Transactions
With just a few weeks left until the end of the year, TwentyEA has unveiled its transactions forecast for 2024, estimating a figure of 1,144,485.
This means it will have been a good year – 12% higher than 2023 and only 2.8% lower than 2019.
Billany added: “Despite the general election and a new government, the market has remained buoyant throughout 2024. We have been saying for some time now that transactions will be between 1.1 million and 1.2 million this year and we’ve already seen the SSTCs to support our forecast. The current demand levels also give us every reason to believe 2025’s property market will enjoy an excellent start.”