"The background here is a collage of both uncertainty and shock. Yet the property landscape appears surprisingly stable – even framed by such drama. This is encouraging."
- Connells
Covering the month of the EU referendum, the total number of valuations carried out in June rose by 4% annually, and follows month-on-month growth of almost a quarter (24%) from May.
John Bagshaw, corporate services director of Connells Survey & Valuation, commented: “These figures for June capture Britain’s property market in the run-up to the EU referendum, but also include a glimpse of the final week of last month. So the background here is a collage of both uncertainty and shock. Yet the property landscape appears surprisingly stable – even framed by such drama. This is encouraging.
“Initial solidity from the post-Brexit housing market may not be enough to answer all the new legal and financial questions in light of the vote – or to offset a likely blow to confidence on the near horizon. But this should bring such fears into perspective. Life will go on and the property market will continue to function.”
Activity from first-time buyers fuelled the growth, making up for a considerable slowdown in buy-to-let valuations. First-time buyers numbers rose 23% year-on-year, whereas buy-to-let valuations decreased by 40% over the same period.
This is on the back of 27% month-on-month growth for first-time buyer valuations, and a slower increase in buy-to-let valuations of 17%.
John Bagshaw added that "a slowdown in the buy-to-let sector may be adding an extra short-term boost for new buyers, as competition from landlords diminishes a little, easing the hunt for a home for sale".
Remortgaging also saw a significant boost in valuation activity in June, rising by 18% on a twelve month basis and 19% month-on-month.
Valuations for existing home-owners looking to move to a new property decreased by 7% on an annual basis, but rose by 29% since May.
Bagshaw continued: “Home movers have once again had a stable month, and this section of the market has enjoyed the strongest seasonal acceleration from May.
“Meanwhile, remortgaging is the other major winner from a time of consistently low mortgage rates – and a possibility of even lower borrowing costs over the summer. As seen in recent months many people are taking advantage of these rates and switching to better mortgage deals. While the coming months are far from certain, so long as lenders remain financially healthy there’s a good chance that expected lower interest rates could feed through to even better mortgage rates and a further wave of remortgaging activity.”
