Property transactions plummeted in June, dropping by 16.5% annually on a seasonally adjusted basis and by 25.1% without adjustments.
HMRC data shows there were 84,490 residential transactions on a seasonally-adjusted basis last month, down 9.6% on a monthly basis.
The figure was lower on a non-adjusted basis, at 83,750, down 13.6% compared with May.
All UK regions experienced a drop for the third consecutive month.
The largest annual decline was in Wales, with sales falling 43.9% annually to 2,840.
Northern Ireland registered a 30.7% drop to 1,870 sales.
Transactions in England and Scotland were both down 24% annually to 70,920 and 8,120 respectively.
The transactions would all relate to deals done some months earlier. Separate banking data has been showing a rise in mortgage approvals for first-time buyers and home movers in recent months.
Mike Scott, chief property analyst at Yopa, said: “These figures are hard to reconcile with data from UK Finance showing little change in the number of mortgages completed in May, when compared with May 2018.
“Taken together, the data suggests that the number of mass-market purchases of homes with mortgages hasn’t changed much, and therefore there has been a very sharp decrease in the number of homes bought for cash, which tend to involve buyers who are not in chains and have no pressing need to move, letting them delay their purchase.
“The most likely explanation is that the uncertainty of the impending Brexit deadline caused home buyers, especially cash buyers, to hold back from agreeing purchases in the first three weeks of March, before an extension was agreed, and that these delayed sales would otherwise have gone on to complete in May or June.
“We therefore expect that the year-on-year comparison will start to improve in the July figures, and will be fully recovered by the autumn, at least until we start to see the effects of the new October deadline around the end of the year.”
Comments (7)
This article refers several times to “annual” differences – which would be comparing two 12-month periods.
It is Year-on-Year differentiations that Land Registry are highlighting.
Nobody likes a slump slump.
Have sold only one house to a landlord in two years.
So pleased I deal in nice houses with high fees and low volumes.
Same although the dent in the bottom end of the market ripples up.
Where is this slump happening? It is busier than ever. We all need a holiday – and now. We need a break.
Or perhaps more likely that people now realise how anti landlord the government and Labour Party are that investors are now fleeing the residential market where many of the cash buyers were thereby reducing demand. Also add in the impact of the landlord bashing and in particular abolishing of s21 that many landlords are starting to sell increasing supply driving down prices which could lead to return of negative equity particularly with the Government’s help to buy purchasers. The government are not going to be thanked by anyone apart from the buyers who can take advantage of the circumstances that May’s interference in the markets has caused. Negative equity and falling prices can be positive to some whilst a disaster to others. Unstable markets generated by Government policy will be May’s legacy.
Bla bla Brexit. Bla bla Brexit. The reality is that buyers have realised that the market has peaked and is going to decline. They are holding off until sellers adjust their prices accordingly.