Property Market News

The cumulative number of offers accepted in the UK since the start of the year is now above the five-year average, says Knight Frank.

Homes sold in the UK in the last year achieved an average of 95.8% of their initial asking price, according to some research by estate agency comparison website GetAgent.

Property market activity in PCL is rebounding more slowly than in outer areas, reports Knight Frank, and average rents continue to fall.

Rental price growth in London has tumbled as Covid-19 drives supply up and demand down, reports Zoopla. The portal expects rental growth outside the capital to halve to +1% by the end of this year.

Prime global cities indices from Knight Frank and Savills reveal how Covid-19 has affected international property markets.

“The Covid crisis has pushed the property market into a hard reset," says Jonathan Hopper of Garrington Property Finders.

"Some parts of central London are now looking extremely cheap compared to their previous price levels," suggests Coutts Bank, going so far as to advise its HNW clients that there are "bargains for buyers…

Any increase in demand for country living over urban location is likely "to be a one-off factor rather than a long-term ‘seismic shift’ in consumer attitudes," says Zoopla.

The UK's Covid-19 lockdown caused a dramatic slump in the number of new instruction and sales agreed, reports Twenty EA, but property exchanges appear to have been more resilient.

"The UK will officially be declared to have entered a recession next month," says Knight Frank's Tom Bill.

Edinburgh's prime property market has picked up more quickly than Scotland's country house scene since Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were eased, says Knight Frank.

"A full house price crash [is] a distinct possibility," warns Oxford Economics as it assesses the potential fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic on global markets.