"So far, rising buyer demand has more or less been met by healthy stock levels, so our advice to sellers is to remain optimistic, but also be patient"
- Gemma Young - Moverly
Moverly has analysed the time it takes to secure a buyer and how this has changed over the past year, before looking at what impact a positive 2024 market has had on asking prices and sold prices in the UK.
2024 has been a good year for the housing market. Monthly mortgage approvals surpassed 60,000 in February and have increased every month since before hitting a two-year high in October with approvals totalling 68,303.
However, with more and more buyers returning to the market, Moverly is advising sellers not to get ahead of themselves as the time it takes to secure a buyer has actually increased over the past year, whilst house prices have remained largely static.
Why is it taking longer to find buyers?
One key factor is the healthy level of for-sale stock in the housing market. Over the last year, for-sale stock levels in England alone increased by almost 14% to sit at a total number of 846,455 listings.
So even though buyer demand is on the up, this abundance of homes for sale means there are plenty of properties available to satisfy demand, without the market becoming overheated as it has been in recent years with multiple buyers competing over a single property.
This surplus of stock versus buyers makes for what is often referred to as a buyer’s market in which the balance of power lies with buyers rather than sellers.
In such an environment, it is expected that sellers will reduce their asking price in order to attract a buyer. But the figures show that this hasn’t been the case, with the average asking price over the past 12 months (£367,572) actually sitting 0.2% higher than it was during the previous 12 months (£366,881).
As a result, the average sold price secured has remained at 77% of the asking price, as buyers continue to battle against high mortgage costs despite recent reductions in the base rate.
All of these factors have, therefore, coalesced to mean that sellers are now waiting considerably longer to secure a buyer.
Between October 2022 and September 2023, it took an average of 53.9 days to secure a buyer. But over the past 12 months (October 2023 - September 2024) this has increased by 10.5 days to sit at an average of 64.4 days.
Gemma Young, Moverly CEO, comments: “The housing market is heading in the right direction, and given all of the economic headwinds that we have battled against over the past year, the market has shown great resilience.
"But as of now, we’re still in a situation where stock outweighs demand, and as such sellers might want to be careful not to assume that they will achieve a quick sale or a particularly high price at this moment in time.
"So far, rising buyer demand has more or less been met by healthy stock levels, so our advice to sellers is to remain optimistic, but also be patient.
"However, sellers and their agents can take simple measures to facilitate a faster process.
"The chance of getting a fast sale — and thus securing a good price — can be increased by providing potential buyers with upfront material information on a property as soon as they express an interest.
"This means they don’t have to go looking for it and there’s less risk of them discovering something unexpected later down the line. In addition, agents and sellers going that step further and completing their legal forms upfront have a better chance of locking in their buyers at the offer stage and reducing the time it takes to get to completion.”
