Everything You Need To Know About The UK Housing Market

The UK housing market is an expansive place filled with endless studies, reports, and expert opinions.

Navigating your own way through various figures and facts can be quite challenging, especially if you’re on the lookout for a property in the UK. 

That said, Conveyancing Supermarket can help assist you throughout the conveyancing process by allowing you to find some of the best conveyancing solicitors to ensure a smooth completion. 

The current state of the UK housing market

As the number of sellers who cut asking prices grow alongside the increase in average time to sell a home, the UK housing market is slowly starting to cool.

For the past month, more than one among 20 homes for sale had slashed asking prices by roughly 9 percent of average — probably the highest discounting level witnessed in 18 months.

These instances alone are enough grounds to assume that things are starting to soften in the housing market. 

Since the start of the pandemic in May 2020, housing prices in the UK had also grown to approximately 18 percent on average, especially when it was reopened following the COVID lockdown.

In fact, the average price of residential property in the UK hit £278,000 in March this year, with Zoopla forecasting a rise of 3 percent in average housing prices this year. 

But despite hitting a 40-year high inflation rate of 9% with living costs worsening and bills soaring, the UK housing market remains exuberant.

While it’s true that house pricing increase has reached its peak, the competition for space that ensued during the pandemic still persists.

Many people have now embraced working at home, amping up demand for properties with a decent garden. 

That said, if you’re currently entertaining the prospect of selling or buying a residential property, it’s best if you first know substantial information about the UK housing market.

Listed below are some facts that you need to know about the residential market in the UK before getting started. 

1. The housing market isn’t limited to London.

London undeniably plays a big role in UK’s housing market, but while this is true, it isn’t the only spot.

The housing market’s total value is estimated to be approximately £5.75 trillion.

From this, London is only a meager spot that accounts for only a quarter of the market, just below £1.5 trillion.

This basically means that there is a market worth about £4.25 trillion beyond the capital worth being a part of. 

2. Around seven percent of the UK is urban sprawl.

You may have already heard about how UK’s pleasant and green lands remain under threat from the looming urban sprawl.

Villages turn into towns, towns eventually turn into cities, and cities gradually take over entire forests and green lands to house the constantly growing population in the country. 

The truth is that merely 6.8% of the UK is considered urban, based on the report of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment.

This rises to over 10% in England but is still deemed less than semi-natural grasslands, which are 14.4% on average and just a bit higher than woodlands (9.5%).

3. The UK is a land of relatively small homes.

With a small area of urban land to work with, it’s unsurprising that the homes that need to fit into the space are small. In all of Europe, the UK houses some of the smallest homes. 

According to a Policy Exchange report, the average size of a new-build home in the UK measures approximately 76 sqm.

Compared to France, the average figure is about 112 sqm, while the United States measures roughly 214 sqm on average.

However, the government has since then made a national standard for space, stipulating that the minimum size for new homes will be 93 sqm.

Nonetheless, the size is still below plenty of countries in the European continent. 

4. The appropriate supermarket can add significant value to your property.

The location of your property goes to the old maxim, and it’s still one that still rings true even in the current housing market of the UK.

For instance, a study by Lloyds discovered in 2016 that living near a Waitrose can add around £38,666 worth of value to your property. 

That said, green spaces are also a must, especially nowadays. This is particularly more true if you plan on residing in big cities.

In London, every park space hectare within at least a kilometer of a house boosts prices by roughly 0.08%. 

To obtain competitive fees for your property, having the assistance of some of the best conveyancing solicitors help ensure that you get the best deal out of your transactions.