Twindig Housing Market Index (HMI) 19 March 22

The Twindig Housing Market Index provides a measure of investor confidence in the UK residential market. We capture the views of those investing in the housebuilding, estate agency, mortgage lending and property portal sectors to gauge the confidence, optimism, or pessimism they have towards the UK housing market. The index started on 1 January 2020 with a value of 100.0. It reached a high of 105.3 on 14 February 2020 and reached a low of 50.0 on 3 April 2020   

In the week that saw Bank Rate rise by 50% (albeit from a very low base) from 0.50% to 0.75%, after five weeks of decline the Twindig Housing Market Index rose by 4.1% to 79.1. Perhaps buoyed by the news from RICS that the housing market is waking up in time for a spring selling season, or the strong sets of results published this week from the UK's two largest estate agents (Connells and LSL Group), investors seem to have lost some of their housing market concerns which dominated the last few weeks.  

Next week, on Tuesday we will see the latest housing transaction levels from the HMRC, and on Wednesday the Land Registry will update us on house prices. It will be interesting to see if these two key datapoints keep housing market investors seeing the residential glass as half full rather than half empty.