December brought property transaction rise

February 12, 2025 by Mark

Property Market

The number of residential property transactions in the UK went up during December, according to new figures released by HMRC.

These figures indicate that transaction numbers rose on both a monthly and an annual basis during December. The total number of residential transactions for the month was 96,330, which is a rise of 3% on the total for November. When the figure is compared to that of December 2023, the increase becomes a remarkable 19%.

Without seasonal adjustments, it becomes 15% – but this still represents a big increase. Minus those adjustments, the monthly situation looks a lot different though. Instead of a 3% increase, December 2024 produced a drop of 7% compared with the total for November.

A number of factors are being cited as reasons for the December increase. Propertymark CEO Nathan Emerson laid them out during an interview with Financial Reporter:

“Stamp duty changes across England and Northern Ireland, more competitive mortgage deals, easing financial pressures and higher house prices are all contributing to higher demand and growth within the housing market.”

Meanwhile, Nick Leeming from Jackson-Stops argued that it was the deadline for the stamp duty changes that had driven the December rise in transaction numbers. He went on to add that people in regions with higher tax rates would be especially focused on getting transactions completed before the end of the month.

Mortgage advisors with CeMAP training will be pleased at this rise, because more residential property transactions inevitably means that they will have greater numbers of clients.