Twindig Housing Market Index (HMI) - 4 December 21

The Twindig Housing Market Index rose by 2.9% this week to 89.9 as housing market investors regained most of the confidence they lost last week following the discovery of the Omicron variant.

Investor confidence increased the most in the housebuilding sector, up 4.5% aided by a confident market outlook from Countryside Properties earlier this week. National Estate Agency Group Belvoir also issued an upbeat trading update this week with trading ahead of management's expectations and healthy sales and letting pipelines bode well for the future financial performance of the group.

The Nationwide Building Society also reported this week that House prices increased in November, bringing some early Christmas year after a dreadful COVID stained year to homeowning investors.

Once again, in the face of adversity, the UK housing market appears to be built on firm foundations, which should be less of a surprise than it seems given the remarkable performance of the housing market since the pandemic hit.

This week, the Bank of England released the first month of mortgage approval data following the end of the stamp duty holiday. Whilst mortgage approvals fell by 6.5% in the month, this compares to a 52% drop in transactions during the same period and is only 2.5% below their 5-year average. Mortgage approvals are a key lead indicator for future housing transactions and, therefore, this 'soft' landing in mortgage approvals should reduce the fears surrounding future cliff edges in housing transaction volumes.