The Q2 2023 edition of Landmark’s Residential Property Trends Report is now live. Within the report, you’ll find the latest insights into the residential property transaction pipeline from listings to SSTC/SSTM, and from searches to completions. 

The report found that whilst supply is relatively strong, demand volumes are struggling to progress through the transactional pipeline.   

Headlines from Q2 include:
•    Supply is up in England and Wales – with listings 12% higher in June ’23 vs June ‘19
•    Completions dropped in England and Wales in Q2 ’23 – 39% lower than Q2 ‘19
•    In Scotland, the picture is marginally better but buyers are similarly constrained  
•    Overall, demand volumes struggle to progress across Great Britain as high interest rates, restricted mortgage availability and squeezed affordability continue to drive an uncertain market.

Did you know that the average time to buy a property in England is 133 days That’s 80% longer than in 2007. 

With transaction times lengthening, we delve into 15 years’ worth of data to uncover what’s really holding up the home-buying process.

Including sector-led perspectives from estate agency, conveyancing, surveying and lending, our Property Transactions Report investigates why buying a property in England and Wales is taking so long – and what we can do to unlock the value in the buying chain.

Our latest Property Transactions Report addresses some of the key questions facing the sector right now, including: 

• What’s the average time from instruction to completion?
• Where are the bottlenecks in the home-buying process?
• What’s the average turnaround time for a valuation?
• How can technology unlock the value in the transactional chain? 

The Q1 2023 edition of Landmark’s Residential Property Trends Report is now live. In it, you’ll find summaries of the last quarter’s residential property transaction pipeline from listings to SSTC/SSTM, and from searches to completions. 

The report shows partial signs of market recovery, with supply strengthening throughout the quarter, following the uncertainty of Q4 2022 – but overall volumes remain subdued.  

Headlines from Q1 include:

• Supply is up in England and Wales – from 10% lower in January ’23 vs ’19 to 6% higher in March ’23 vs ’19.
• Completions slowed in England and Wales in Q1 ‘23 – down 10% on Q4 ’22 volumes, likely due to the low SSTC figures at the end of Q4 ‘22.
• A slight uplift in volumes across all stages of the pipeline was seen in Scotland 
• Consumers’ ability to buy remains a crucial factor in influencing market trajectory after Q4 uncertainty

Download the Cross Market Activity edition for both England, Wales and Scotland, and review the latest data from the UK property market during the first quarter of 2023. 

We hope you find it useful.

The latest report from our parent company Landmark’s Market Research analysis focuses on how the residential property sector is embracing automation and deriving benefits from digital transformation. 

It’s clear, being able to surface more insights earlier can speed up transactions and deliver more buyer certainty. Landmark asked over 100 residential conveyancers to share their experiences of going digital and moving to a business model that automates more key systems.

Discover: 

• The percentage of firms committed to automation and increasing their IT budgets
• The biggest challenges to digital transformation – what’s holding business back
• Which aspects of the sales process might benefit most from more automation
• The percentage of businesses that say automation makes them more profitable  

Landmark Information Group collects, manages and delivers data across every part of the property industry’s value chain. The breadth of our work means we can undertake a wide range of surveys just like this one, surfacing key insights on subjects such as automation, Home Movers’ Experiences, and Climate Change.

The guide is available for download now.  

We have been made aware that the estimated turnaround time for regulated Local Searches in the Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council area is currently 40 working days.

This is due to a technical problem the council have with an internal system, which is causing significant delays. The estimated turnaround time for official Local Searches in this area is currently 85 working days.

If you do have an urgency with any particular case, or if unexpected delays have put the transaction at risk of collapse, we can support you with OneSearch Express, our indemnity policy which provides a data-rich alternative to standard No-Search Insurance, as it also includes a comprehensive report pertinent to a client’s property. Typically returned in just 24-48 hours, Express provides the majority of data (over 70%) that you would typically obtain from Local Authorities, meaning you and your client can complete quickly, and with more confidence.

Our clients have been using Express since 2015 for instances where search delays have put transactions at risk of collapse, and our claims record is exemplary: there are no claims resulting from our Express searches. This is due to the accuracy of our data, and triple quality check methodology. No other company exists with our dataset, comprised of real-time and historical CON29 data.

If you would like more information about OneSearch Express, please email intro@onesearchdirect.co.ukor call 01782 433270.

Few people are likely to forget 2022.

It was the year we lost Her Majesty; The Queen and King Charles III took the throne. No 10 had three residents since September, inflation reached its highest level since 1982, and the base interest rate, which sat at under 2% since January 2009, rose to 3.5%. As for residential property prices, house prices fell for the fourth consecutive month in December, the worst run since 2008, according to Nationwide. The lender’s final House Price Index of 2022 showed average prices fell 0.1% on a monthly basis to £262,068.” 

The biggest challenge facing the industry in 2022 was what could be considered the fifth horseman of the apocalypse – uncertainty. Loathed by consumers and businesses alike, uncertainty, especially in the chaotic month of October (remember that career-ending mini-budget) caused Zoopla to report a 40% transaction fall-through rate during the tenth month of the year. 

We sat down with the Managing Director of OneSearch, Elizabeth Jarvis and Robin Wells, the Head of Sales Operations to discuss their thoughts on what lies ahead for the property market in 2023. 

The economic outlook for 2023 – a protracted but shallow recession. 

Although the UK narrowly avoided tipping into a recession in 2022, the latest report by KPMG (Dec 2022) estimates a lengthy downturn throughout 2023, but with the overall drop in economic activity being relatively modest when compared to previous recessions. Unemployment is expected to remain low, and inflation is set to fall to 4% by the end of the year and hit the target of 2% by mid-2024. As for interest rates, the Bank of England’s base rate is predicted to reach 4% by the end of Q1, dropping to 3.25% at the close of 2024.  

What will higher interest rates mean for households? KPMG conclude that although mortgages are the largest component of household debt in the UK, two-thirds of mortgage debts are held by the top half of the wealth distribution, which is also where excess savings accumulated during the pandemic are concentrated: 

“With households paying around £14bn in interest (on mortgages and other debt) every quarter, and the stock of excess savings around £86bn, it would in aggregate be enough to cover a doubling of interest payments over six quarters, effectively getting households through the recession. Unemployment is expected to peak at a relatively lower level during the current recession, meaning more households are likely to retain their main source of income. In addition, households are likely to be less leveraged due to more conservative lending criteria, which saw a fall in the share of high LTV mortgages (at a loan-to-value ratio of 90% and above) to 4.5% by 2022 Q3 compared to a peak of nearly 15% in 2007.” 

Robin Wells added: 

“The energy crisis plays a big part in the decision to move home. For some, it will practically wipe out the prospect of “up-sizing” and with energy bills set to increase again from April the cost of energy is as big a factor as interest rates when it comes to home buying and selling decisions.” 

With the predictions for the overall economy set out above, let us examine what all this means for the property sector and Conveyancers. 

A year of real estate market stability and confidence? – It is looking positive 

The fact that despite 2022 being so traumatic in terms of uncertainty, as evidenced above, house prices still rose by 5.6% on the previous year. This confirms that there remains an appetite to buy and sell property. And according to our Residential Property Trends Report for Q4 2022, the market sat in a holding pattern at the end of last year whilst buyers and sellers waited to see what the New Year would bring in terms of interest rates and new mortgage products. 

With interest rates peaking in the first quarter of 2023 and then stabilising, affordable mortgages will begin to return. In conjunction, house prices should continue to fall levelling up the playing field and bringing confidence to first-time buyers. 

Commenting on how stakeholders in the property sector can successfully navigate the first few months of the year, Elizabeth Jarvis said: 

“The biggest factor stalling the housing market right now is uncertainty.  Interest rates must stabilise, and lenders must be clear about their intentions and lending strategies.  Mortgage products need to be open to a wider range of the market and mortgage rates need to settle. House prices are consistently reducing and with all these factors I have no doubt the housing economy will become reinvigorated as the year progresses.” 

Tips for successfully navigating a complex 2023 property market 

Due to an ageing population and the post-pandemic trend of early retirement, almost every country in the developed world is suffering from severe skill shortages. Combine this with low birth rates and there is no escaping the fact that to compete effectively, law firms, along with many other industries, will need to continue to embrace technology. Research recently conducted and released by OneSearch’s parent company Landmark shows over 65% of senior property solicitors and conveyancers acknowledge task automation has made their business more profitable. 

For Conveyancers and legal professionals, affordable and supported technology provides a path to speeding up the conveyancing process and thereby acquiring market share from competing practices. In addition, technology can mitigate risks associated with particular elements of the conveyancing transaction, for example, creating manual reports on title. In today’s marketplace, where dissatisfied clients are usually more than happy to leave harsh Google/Trustpilot reviews, ensuring your conveyancing department has access to the technology-based solutions it needs to provide swift, accurate, responsive client service must be a priority for all law firm managers in 2023.