The UK housing market remains remarkably solid, as reflected by the 4.9% increase in the volume of residential property transactions between December 2016 and January 2017, according to the latest HMRC data.<\/p>\n
The seasonally adjusted figure for the month is 0.3% higher compared with the corresponding month last year.<\/p>\n
The increase between December and January marks the fourth consecutive month of increases, and shows a pick-up from the 0.2% rise seen between November and December 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s data continues to show the market is resilient with transactions up 4.9% on the year, all the more impressive when considering the rush of buy-to-let buyers entering the market to beat the stamp duty surcharge this same time last year,\u201d said Paul Smith, CEO of haart estate agents.<\/p>\n
But the government\u2019s approach to prospective property purchases simply \u201cplaces too much emphasis on the stick whilst offering not enough carrot\u201d, and is doing little to persuade potential buyers that \u201cnow\u2019s the time to make a move\u201d, according to Smith.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cAll we as the industry can do is to continue to sing the same tune for change in the hope that the government will listen.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemove stamp duty for downsizers and first-time buyers, build more family homes and improve affordability for millions of first-time buyers that are desperately wanting to jump off the merry-go-round that is the rental trap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take a combined effort from all areas of the market to really unlock the potential for change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yesterday\u2019s figures from the HMRC shows that \u201cbuyer confidence in bricks and mortar remains positive\u201d, according to Stephen Wasserman, managing director of West One Loans.<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cThe growth in property transactions is a promising start to the year and, although we\u2019re anticipating some further economic disruptions caused by the political climate at home and abroad, these are encouraging signs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe property financing industry has to keep offering \u2013 and indeed offer more \u2013 flexible financing options to purchasers. This is imperative if we\u2019re going to keep the market moving and enable property investors to navigate the market successfully in the months and years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UK housing market remains remarkably solid, as reflected by the 4.9% increase in the volume of residential property transactions between December 2016 and January 2017, according to the latest HMRC data. The seasonally adjusted figure for the month is 0.3% higher compared with the corresponding month last year. The increase between December and January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9PjAq-GI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}