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Agreed UK property sales jumped by almost a third year on year at the end of 2024 as buyers rushed to avoid the rise in stamp duty from next April, according to data from Zoopla.
Research by the property portal reported on Monday that there were 283,000 sales agreed but not yet completed as of December 14, the largest sales pipeline in four years and up by 30 per cent on the end of 2023.
Buyers’ inquiries were up 21 per cent in December compared with the same period last year. The company attributed the two trends to the incoming rise in stamp duty, which was set out by chancellor Rachel Reeves in her October Budget.
Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla, said: “There is a sizeable pipeline of sales that will complete in the first half of 2025 with many hoping to avoid higher stamp duty costs from next April.”
“Buyers and sellers returned to the housing market in 2024 having delayed moves in the face of higher mortgage rates,” he added.
Reeves confirmed in the Budget that a temporary stamp duty holiday would end in March. As a result, first-time buyers, for example, will from April 2025 start paying the levy for properties worth £300,000 or more, instead of £425,000 at present.
Anticipation of changes to the stamp duty regime helped lift mortgage approvals to their highest level since August 2022 in October, according to separate data published by the Bank of England.
Matt Thompson, head of sales at Chestertons, said the estate agency was “seeing one of the busiest Decembers in years in terms of buyer demand”.
“This is mostly driven by first-time buyers who are keen to get on the property ladder before next year’s changes to stamp duty, but also by second-steppers including young families, wanting to upsize,” he added.
UK house prices rose 3.7 per cent year on year in November, the fastest annual growth since November 2022, according to separate data published by Nationwide earlier in December.
Zoopla reported a further acceleration in annual house price growth in December, compared with the previous month. But it also noted that buyers became more price-sensitive after the Autumn Budget and amid growing uncertainty over the outlook for mortgage rates.
Buyers paid on average 3.6 per cent below a property’s asking price in December, Zoopla data showed, up from 3.2 per cent in the summer.
Mortgage rates have ticked up since November over concerns about stubborn inflation, which has increased financial markets’ expectation that the Bank of England will be cautious in cutting interest rates next year.
The central bank held its benchmark rate at 4.75 per cent last week, after two reductions since the summer. After the latest vote, BoE governor Andrew Bailey said “heightened uncertainty in the economy” meant policymakers could not “commit to when or by how much we will cut rates in the coming year”.
Zoopla expects UK house prices to rise by 2.5 per cent in 2025. Thompson forecast growth of 3.4 per cent, saying that “improved affordability, pent-up demand and renewed confidence in the market should provide support for steady growth in property values”.
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