61 per cent of last year’s total sales transactions occurred in the last 6 months, when the number of properties was up 35 per cent on 2008. Equally interesting, houses prices went up 4.7 per cent in last half of 2009, a gain of 2.5 per cent for the year.
New figures out today from Zoopla.co.uk revealed the extent of the property market turbulence last year. While property sales in Britain in 2009 were 6.8 per cent lower than a year earlier, it was very much a year of two halves. The number of properties that changed hands in the first 6 months of last year (273,015) was down 36.9 per cent on 2008 but the second half of 2009 showed a 34.6 per cent surge in sales transactions (421,732) compared to the last half of 2008.
While home values in Britain managed a gain of 2.5 per cent over 2009, average house prices fell 2.2 per cent over the first 6 months of the year (from £205,607 to £201,067) before recovering in the second half by 4.7 per cent to reach an average value of £210,661 by the year end, according to the latest figures form Zoopla.co.uk. One of the biggest factors in the house price rebound in the second half of last year was the recovery in market activity with increased transaction volumes leading to higher property prices.
Transaction volumes were particularly strong in the fourth quarter of 2009, up by double-digits in all regions compared to 2008 with the exception of Scotland where sales levels have been slow to recover and were up only eight per cent in Q4 09 versus the previous year and were down 33 per cent for the full year 2009, compared to a decline of only one per cent in England and twelve per cent in Wales.
Nicholas Leeming, Commercial Director of Zoopla.co.uk, commented, “2009 was a tale of two halves for the UK property market. The first half of the year was pretty poor coming off a year of transaction volumes at historic lows. The second half of the year was a different story as sales started to bounce back strongly, particularly in the south where buyers returned to the market as prices became tempting and to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday.”
