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Agreed property sales in the UK jumped by around a third year-on-year at the end of 2024, as buyers rushed to avoid higher stamp duty from next April, according to data from Zoopla.
Research by the property portal reported on Monday that 283,000 sales had been agreed but not yet completed as of December 14, the largest pipeline of sales in progress in four years and up 30 per cent at the end of 2023.
Buyer inquiries rose by 21 per cent in December compared to the same period last year. The company attributed these two trends to the upcoming increase in stamp duty, which was outlined by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her speech. October budget.
Richard Donnell, chief executive at Zoopla, said: “There is a significant pipeline of sales due to be completed in the first half of 2025, and many will be hoping to avoid higher stamp duty costs from next April.”
“Buyers and sellers returned to the housing market in 2024 after delaying moves in the face of rising mortgage rates,” he added.
Reeves confirmed in the Budget that the temporary stamp duty holiday would end in March. As a result, from April 2025, for example, first-time buyers will start paying estate tax on estates worth £300,000 or more, rather than the current £425,000.
Anticipation of changes to the stamp duty regime helped push mortgage approvals to their highest level since August 2022 in October, according to separate data published by the Bank of England.
Matt Thompson, head of sales at Chestertons, said the estate agency was “experiencing one of its busiest Decembers in years in terms of buyer demand”.
He added: “This is mostly due to first-time buyers keen to get on the property ladder ahead of next year’s changes to stamp duty, but also by new buyers including young families, who want to upsize.”
House prices in the United Kingdom It rose 3.7 percent year-on-year in NovemberIt is the fastest annual growth since November 2022, according to separate data published by Nationwide earlier in December.
Zoopla reported a further acceleration in annual house price growth in December, compared to the previous month. But it also noted that buyers were becoming more price sensitive after the Autumn Budget and amid growing uncertainty about the outlook for mortgage interest rates.
Buyers paid on average 3.6 per cent less than the asking price for a property in December, up from 3.2 per cent in the summer, Zoopla data showed.
Mortgage rates have risen since November on concerns about stubborn inflation, raising financial market expectations that the Bank of England will be cautious in cutting interest rates next year.
Central Bank Maintain its standard rate At 4.75 percent last week, after two cuts since the summer. After the latest vote, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said “increasing uncertainty in the economy” meant policymakers could not “commit when or how much to cut interest rates next year.”
Zoopla expects UK house prices to rise by 2.5 per cent in 2025. Thompson predicted growth of 3.4 per cent, saying that “improving affordability, pent-up demand and renewed confidence in the market should provide support for sustained growth in property values”.
