Housing market is ‘returning to normal’

The housing market is returning to normality with 68% of listed properties selling in the first 12 weeks of 2023 – the same as the pre-pandemic rate in 2019, research reveals.

The findings from TwentyEA show that the volumes of new instructions this year are broadly similar to last year – they are 2.6% higher.

However, the research firm says that supply is still 7.7% lower than the pre-pandemic years of 2019 and 2020.

And while volumes of sales agreed have fallen by 18.4% in the last year, demand is only 7.8% lower than pre-pandemic 2019.

Market is clearly returning to a pre-pandemic normal

TwentyEA’s strategic solutions director, Stuart Ducker, said: “The market is clearly returning to a pre-pandemic normal where in both 2019 and 2023, we have seen demand as a percentage of supply at 68%.

“When looking at March 2023 in isolation, demand versus supply was 72% in 2023 versus 70% in 2019, so relative to supply, demand levels are stronger than they were the pre-pandemic.

“It is clear that supply has been affected by price band, increasing in the two more expensive bands, but remained fairly flat in the £200k-£350k bracket, falling sharply in the <£200k price bracket.”

He added: “Volumes of sales agreed has fallen substantially across all price brackets in the last year.

“The lowest priced properties have seen the largest falls in demand, while in the £1m+ bracket, demand has not fallen quite as much.”