According to Zoopla, the time it takes to sell a home in the UK has increased by approximately 15 days since this time last year.
The latest Zoopla House Price Index has revealed that annual house price growth is slowing to 4.1%, with the quarterly growth rate being negative for the last three months.
Mortgage rates are predicted to remain around 4% throughout 2023 and could even decrease towards the end of the year, with buyers returning to the market and demand being 16% higher than in 2019.
Scotland has the quickest sales periods at 28 days, while London has the longest time to sell at 44 days.
Zoopla also stated that the housing market is “in much better shape than many predicted” at the end of 2022, with the market possibly being more in balance than at any time for the last three years.
Richard Donnell, executive director of research at Zoopla, commented:
“The market is going through a soft repricing process with modest quarter-on-quarter price drops across all regions and countries of the UK,” He also mentioned “The positive news is that buyers and sellers are coming to agreements which are helping sales activity. This in turn is driving business plans and revenues for agents, lenders, and builders.”
“Even though mortgage rates are twice as high as they were early last year, we still anticipate one million sales transactions in 2023. We also predict ‘peak to trough’ house price falls of up to 5% in certain areas.”
Eva Whittaker, Operation Director at Optimus comments:
“At Optimus, we understand the difficulty of purchasing a home in the UK. That is why we have spent four years perfecting our service processes, solicitor networks, and partnerships to deliver transaction times that are four weeks quicker than the industry average. Our results are consistent across our panel of 20 solicitors, and are measured across 12,000 completions. We have also implemented technology where necessary to help the process, but it is our people that have truly delivered these results. We are committed to solving this problem and making a big difference for those buying property.”
It is clear that the time it takes to sell a home is increasing and it will be interesting to see how others in the industry tackle the ever growing problem.
