Property sales rise – which region is doing best?

June 24, 2020 by Brendan O'Neill

Surveys and Statistics

The newest figures released by Zoopla show that the housing market has bounced back well in the month since it was released from lockdown, but property sales in some UK regions are far outstripping others.

There has been a rise of 137% in property sales throughout the UK since the easing of the lockdown in mid-May, with demand having returned to the levels that it was at before the pandemic and actually being 54% above what it was when the market first went into lockdown in late March. However London is not the place that is driving the spike in UK property sales, as it is the north-west that has experienced the most spectacular bounce back.

Completed house sales in the north-west have returned almost to the level that they were at pre-pandemic, being only 0.9% lower now than at the beginning of March. By contrast, property sales within London remain sluggish, currently being 24.8% lower than the figure for early March.

Zoopla director of insight and research, Richard Donnell, has suggested that one reason areas like the north-west are proving more attractive is that people are moving from London to cities like Manchester, as it offers a good quality of life and job prospects. In addition, living in densely populated areas such as the centre of London has become less appealing in the wake of the coronavirus.

This could see a rise in demand for CeMAP classes in Manchester, as aspiring mortgage advisors look to get in on the action.