The property market had its quietest May since 2012, HMRC data shows.
Property transaction figures from the taxman show there were 89,830 sales on a non-seasonally adjusted basis last month.
This is the lowest figure for May since 75,350 transactions were recorded in 2012.
The statistic is down 5.8% annually but up 0.9% on a monthly basis.
The biggest drop was in Wales, where sales fell 24.5% over the month to 3,040 and 30% down compared with 12 months ago.
Transactions in England rose 2.3% on a monthly basis to 75,640, but were down 4.7% annually.
In Scotland, sales fell 0.7% over the month to 7,920 and were down 4.5% annually, while volumes rose 9.4% in Northern Ireland on a monthly basis to 2,230 but fell 0.8% annually.
The provisional seasonally adjusted figure of residential property transactions decreased by 6.4% between April 2019 and May 2019, and was 11.3% lower than May last year, at 89,810.
Comments (2)
I assumed the land registry input person was away or on strike when I saw the transaction volumes in our areas, clearly not !
I find it important to track our percentage share of the markets completions, not just total units/income. This way if there are 100 completions in a month and you do 20 you know you have a 20% share. If in a month there are 40 and you do 10 you could actually celebrate an increase of 5% in market share. It’s more positive in a tricky market and in a good market it keeps you from thinking you are doing better than you are! … If you do 50 completions in a market where there where 200 it is still the same market share. etc etc
I find the above a good measure of success, and a great way to review the underlying market not just the froth. There is no point pressurizing a manager or yourself if they are selling less this year but are still increasing market share, you cant control market volumes.
No point having a huge register of properties you can’t sell, unless of course you are purple and get paid for listing and not for selling.
Have a good week everyone who would have thought we are nearly 1/2 way through 2019.
This is the biggest story of the day.