Housepresso 23 May 21
All you need to know about the housing market this week in one quick hit
House price inflation smashes through 10% barrier
The Land Registry reported this week that the average price of a house in the UK reached £256,405 in March 2021. House price inflation in the year to 31 March 2021 exceeded 10%. The value average house in the UK increased by almost £24,000 or £2,000 per month. For details of how house prices fared in your area click the links below:
Housing transactions
Housing transactions in April 2021 36% lower than in March following the initial Stamp Duty Holiday dash, but it was the busiest April since 2007 - the one in the lead up to the Global Financial Crisis... Transaction levels likely to remain elevated until the current Stamp Duty Holiday has run its course
Should we get rid of Stamp Duty AND Council Tax?
The liberal conservatism think tank Bright Blue is proposing that we should get rid of both Stamp Duty and Council Tax, but what it gives with one hand it takes away with the other. Property taxes are here to stay, but might be structured in a different way. The risk is that what is saved in Stamp Duty Tax feeds through to higher house prices as we have seen with the current Stamp Duty Holiday and it could end up costing us more over the longer term
Purplebricks - listing more house but are they selling?
Purplebricks has an interesting business model where sellers are charged whether or not their home sells, nice for them, not so nice if your home doesn’t sell. However, in the year to 30 April 2021 more than 60,238 homeowners trusted Purplebricks with their home to sell, up 12% on the year to 30 April 2020. The 64 million dollar question is how many homes do they actually sell? Unfortunately, that is a number Purplebricks never discloses, so as with many things in life using Purplebricks is a bit of a gamble.
Homebuilders going from strength to strength
Homebuilder Vistry (Bovis and Linden Homes) and build to rent specialist Watkin Jones both reported robust trading this week, home sales are up as are orderbooks, the rising activity in the overall housing market is seeing increased demand for new homes.