+ 16% more listings YTD (year to date) compared to 2023

+ 13% more Gross sales YTD compared to 2023

+ 29% more Net sales YTD in 2024 compared to 2023

+ £/sqft on Listing £365.29 in Dec ’23 , up from Nov ’23. Sale Agreed down 2% to £321

I am joined by this week’s special guest Ben Madden on the first ’Stat Show’ of the year.

+ New Properties to the Market (Listings): New listings last week were 28,432 (Average for week 2 in the previous eight years 26,436). YTD, we are on 48,852 listings, slightly higher than the eight-year average of 42,824.

+ Average Listing Price: The average listing price this week was £419,103.

+ Percentage difference between Listing and Sale Agreed Prices: This week, it’s 25.2%. We always have slightly higher figures at the start of January, looking back at statistics from 2017. Hopefully, this should subside and settle down as the months go on to a more long-term average of 16 or 17%. Interestingly, the 2023 average was slightly higher than expected at 20.3%.

+ Price Reductions: 16,876 price reductions were seen last week (decent number). The Week 2 average in the previous eight years has been 12,752. The 2023 running weekly average was 19,806 per week

+ Average Asking Price of Properties Being Reduced: This week’s average asking price of reduced properties was £381,323. The 2023 running weekly average was £401,784.

+ Number of Properties Sold (Gross Sales): Gross sales have done well. Total number of gross sales in the UK last week was 18,115. For comparison, the eight-year average for this week is 18,875, and that includes the crazy years of 2021 and 2022, which would’ve dragged up the actual average.

+ Accumulative Gross Sales YTD: Year to date, there has been a total of 29,128 properties sold subject to contract, which is of interest when you compare that to 2017, when it was 27,800, in 2018, 26,300 and 2019, 26,320. Even when I consider the crazy years of 2021 and 2022, the average year to date is still only 30,177.

+ Average Asking Price of Properties Sold STC this Week: The average asking price of properties sold last week was £334,860, very similar to the level seen in the last half of 2023.

+ Sale Fall Throughs (Units): There were 5,057 Sale Fall Throughs. The 2023 figure was an average of 5,382.

+ Sale Fall Thru (%): The Sale Fall Thru Rate % is the number of ‘sales fall thru’ for the week expressed as a percentage of Gross Sales for the week. This week, it was at 27.92%. This is slightly higher than the level seen in Q4 ’23 when they were hovering around the early20%’s, but I would expect this level coming off the back of the Christmas break, and if you look at the graph, you’ll see there’s always a spike around Christmas.

+ Net Sales YTD: Net Sales YTD is 19,882. We are 103.8% of 2017/18/19 YTD Net Sales.

+ Net Sales This Week (Standalone): Net Sales this week (Wk 2) 13,058. The eight-year average for this time of year (week 2) is 13,872, which includes the bumper years of 2021 and 2022. The average normal years (2017, 2018 and 2019 was 12,684)

+ Number of Properties for Sale in the UK: On the 31st December 2023, there were 560,515 properties for sale, a significant drop from November 2023, which was 633,951. However, this is expected between November and December every year. The 31st December 2022 level was 481,403. The average stock level for the last eight years, on 31st December, been 506k

+ Estate Agents Sales Pipelines: as we started the 1st January ’24, there were 359,079 properties in estate agents sales pipelines, which is 9.9% lower than November (as expected). Interestingly, the average number of properties in estate agents’ pipelines on 31/12 between 2017 and 2019 inclusive was 305k properties (so there are roughly 20% properties in agents pipelines than the pre-lockdown years of 17/18/19.

+ £/sqft Figures – the average pound per square foot on Listings in December was £365.29, which is a slight growth from the month before at £357.15. However, December listings are only 45% of the monthly annual average of listings, so I am taking a pinch of salt and will wait for the Feb and March figures before making any rash judgements.

The square foot at sale agreed was £321.32, which is approximately 2.64% lower than the month before at £329.77 (again, because December is such low numbers, another pinch of salt is required).

In the last six months, square feet at exchange has remained relatively stable at £327/sqft. December saw an exchange square foot level of £328/sqft

Watkin’s final thoughts … 

So, we are only two weeks into a New Year and things are looking pretty good. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and take each week as it comes. Prospect like hell, list well and get them sold

As always, the last 20 minutes of the YouTube show looks focuses on a particular location, and this week, Ben and I looked at Cambridge estate and letting agents to find out which one was the best.