0:03 AM, 29th February 2024, About 10 months ago
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The total value of homes sold in England plunged by 48% in 2023, from £295.7bn in 2022 to £154.7bn in 2023, a new report reveals.
The research from eXp UK, the platform for personal estate agents, found a £141bn difference in the amount of money being spent on property.
The findings, based on the latest available data from the Land Registry, examined the value of all homes sold in England last year, using the sold price of each transaction.
It was then compared with the previous year to assess the impact on the country’s property market.
Adam Day, the head of eXp UK, said: “2023 was a challenging year for the property market and higher interest rates coupled with wider market uncertainty caused many buyers to remain sat on the fence, while those who did take the plunge did so tentatively.
“While this did result in an annual reduction in the average house price, the decline seen was far more marginal than many had anticipated and, all things considered, the property market has stood very firm.”
He added: “However, when viewing the market based on the total value of homes sold, these marginal reductions soon add up.
“While £154.7bn worth of property sales is nothing to be sniffed at, it does sit considerably lower than the total seen during 2022 when the market was still benefiting from the pandemic market boom.”
He points out that he is expecting the total value of homes sold this year to rebound from the annual decline seen last year.
The findings show that the value of homes sold in England exceeded £154.7bn last year but this is a significant drop of 48% compared to the previous year.
That means sellers spent £141bn less in 2023 than in 2022.
This decline in spending was caused by more demanding market conditions, with higher interest rates squeezing buyer purchasing power, lowering not only the price they were ready to pay, but also the number of buyers finalising a purchase.
As a result, the average house price across England ended the year -2.1% lower annually, while there were -47% fewer transactions in 2023 than in 2022.
London suffered the most with the largest annual fall of all regions with the average value of a home dropping -4.8%.
Despite this, the capital still outperforms all regions in terms of the total value of homes sold with a total of £40bn being sold – 22% of the national total.
Surrey ranked second, where only £5.8bn worth of homes were sold, or 4% of the national total.
The City of London had the lowest total value of homes sold in 2023 at £60.6m, while Rutland (£101.7m), Isle of Wight (£383.3m), Herefordshire (£366.7m) and Northumberland (£623m) were the only other counties to come in below the £1bn mark.
However, it was Bedfordshire that witnessed the largest year on year decrease in the total level of homes sold with £1.64bn worth – a fall of -56% versus 2022.
Buckinghamshire (-53%), Lincolnshire (-52%), Cambridgeshire (-52%) and Northamptonshire (-52%) also experienced some of the largest year on year reductions in the total value of homes sold.
