A subdued market struggling with uncertain conditions   

The residential sector is still navigating a period of uncertainty. Although listing activity has strengthened this quarter – with June ‘23 outperforming June ’19 by 10% in Scotland and 12% in England & Wales – demand remains weak with volumes struggling to progress through the transactional pipeline. 

Overall, this trend is likely due to ongoing high interest rates, restricted mortgage availability and affordability being squeezed as the cost-of-living crisis continues to impact the sector.   

As a result, our report shows lower volumes have been feeding through to the rest of the transaction pipeline. In Scotland, the market seems to be more resilient. When compared to Q2 2019 levels, our data found that STTM levels were down 10%, completion activity reduced by 13% and registered sales dropped by 11%.  

In England and Wales, if we compare the same period in 2019, SSTC volumes were down 30%, residential search order levels dropped by 32% and completion volumes were reduced by 39%. 

Landmark CEO Simon Brown commented:  

“While there is strong supply in the residential market, the sector continues to be impacted by the cost-of-living-crisis, with mortgage availability and then affordability limiting consumers’ ability to move. We will only see activity flow through the pipeline once the market finds a balance between interest rates, inflation and the cost of housing. When that time comes, speeding up property transactions – which now take an average of 133 days in England and Wales – will be essential to ensuring a swift and sustained recovery.” 

Click here to access the Cross-Market Activity edition of Landmark’s Q2 2023 Residential Property Trends report.  

 NB: In order to benchmark pipeline performance, this report compares our latest data with 2019 as the last ‘normal’ trading year.