The latest provisional non-seasonally adjusted estimate of UK residential transactions in April 2022 is 97,970, 13.9% lower than April 2021 and 10.5% lower than March 2022.
Debbie Boyes from Willowlace Ltd, Mortgage Brokers says “We should take note of Milton Friedman’s statement that “Statistics do not speak for themselves” when looking at this data. Whilst these figures may indicate a slowdown in the housing market, the Stamp Duty Holiday and the Covid-19 Pandemic produced a somewhat volatile variation in transactions since April 2020.” Debbie continues “When looking at the pre-pandemic figures of April 2019, the provisional seasonally adjusted UK property transactions were 99,420, so perhaps the market is simply returning to a more stable period. We need to be careful not to talk our way into a self-fulfilling prophesy with property prices.”
