2020 was a roller coaster year for the UK property market, Landmark Information Group’s first Property Trends report has found.
Published late-January the report found that early signs of growth at the start of 2020 were stalled by Covid-19 and the first lockdown. But this was followed by a peak where listings soared by 42% in September. Property search order volumes were all reporting below the 2019 baseline figures between March and June, but this returned to growth during the second half of 2020. This included a 58% peak on property searches ordered in December compared to the same month in the previous year.
The market activity across the transaction pipeline shows that completions decreased during much of 2020, with February to September all showing a reduction in completion rates compared to 2019 levels. But the market turned a corner in last quarter of the year with completion rates at 9%, 3% and 24% above 2019 baseline data for October, November and December, respectively.
Simon Brown, CEO of Landmark Information Group, said the data “paints a very clear picture of the pressure that the entire market has felt during 2020, with the closure of the market in March during the first lockdown, followed by the subsequent explosion of activity upon reopening and launch of the Government’s land tax break.”
Watsons Head of Residential Sales Nick Eley said: “This report clearly demonstrates the turbulence in the property market seen in 2020. But there are early signs that 2021 could be another busy year once we get through the current lockdown, as people continue to reassess their housing priorities. The way we have switched to homeworking also means the things that people need from their home may look different now to what it did a year or more ago. Longer term I think the overall outlook remains positive; we have the vaccine being rolled out, which should reduce the need for too many further lockdowns and with a proportion of the population potentially having savings set aside that would have typically been spent on holidays, combined with Covid stimulus activities, this may give increased buying power to people looking to move to a home that ticks the boxes on their ‘new normal’ wish list.”
Source: Landmark Information Group Property Trends report
