Housing News

Let's take a look at how the the housing market is progressing - we remain very much in a buyer's market. Now we're officially in Summer mode, sellers need to tempt those buyers with attractive pricing. Broader global and UK challenges continue to play their part.

Rightmove

Buyer demand in May was down 10% compared to 2025, but is largely in line with what Rightmove have seen so far this year. The number of homes for sale is slightly down but still at a historically high level. The number of sales agreed are also down at 6% compared to 2025. These are broadly in line with recent years (almost the same as 2024 and 5% above 2023 levels).

The average price has fallen by 0.6% (-£2,113) to £376,191. Historically, June typically sees a small price increase. However, this price drop is the largest in 14 years! This price drop suggests that new sellers are adjusting prices in response to the record number of homes available with buyers remaining sensitive to pricing.

Source: Rightmove

The monthly average number of days it takes for a seller to secure a buyer is below - in January, it was 81 days and for May it was 60 days. This is a useful indicator of how active the property market is, and how accurately people are pricing their properties. Given we are in a buyer market, properties that are priced too high take longer to sell.

Source: Rightmove

Summer is typically slower, with homeowners and house hunters distracted by sporting events - we've just finished the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs and we're early into the World Cup. There are holidays planned and hopefully better weather ahead! This all has a real impact on the market.

Unsurprinsingly to us, Rightmove state that in market where choice is high and buyers are more selective, it’s very important to price a property correctly from the start of the sales process. Over a 1/3 of new listings will not go onto sell.

Colleen Babcok, property expert at Rightmove says:

“In this kind of market, sellers need to work harder to attract attention. Setting a competitive asking price from the outset is key, as buyers are taking more time to compare options and are quick to move on if a home doesn’t stand out on value. When sellers are over-optimistic on price and find they need to reduce later to sell, it can be harder to regain momentum, which underlines just how important it is to get the pricing right from day one.

Rightmove’s daily mortgage tracker shows that the average 2 year fixed rate has dropped to 5.07% from 5.18% a month ago - resulting in the average monthly mortgage payment reducing by approximately £30.

Matt Smith, Rightmove's mortgage expert says:

“While rates remain higher than the lows of recent years, they have been relatively stable over a sustained period, which is helping to provide more certainty for those planning a move..”

Learn more here.

Zoopla

From their perspective, Zoopla confirm that there are more homes selling compared to the same period in 2025, even though fewer people are actively looking. House prices are rising slowly, up 1.5% nationally, but it varies a lot by location. Activity is holding up despite economic uncertainty but the balance could shift if buyer numbers fall further.

Source: Zoopla

Interestingly sales agreed are 1% higher than for 2025, despite buyer demand being 10% lower. While browsers and those sensitive to higher borrowing costs have stepped back, proceedable buyers have continued to make offers on homes, pushing sales higher. This is not the first time buyer demand has declined while sales have held firm. The same thing happened after the 2022 mini-budget and again in the run up to the Autumn Budget in 2025. During both these occasions, sales proved more resilient than buyer demand changes.

Source: Zoopla

More homes for sale gives buyers greater choice and more households are pressing ahead despite increased uncertainty.

So what's the outlook? Zoopla confirms the housing market is holding up, despite uncertainty and higher borrowing costs. The events in the Middle East on UK inflation, cost of living and mortgage rates are unclear and uncertainty remains into 2027. House price inflation looks to hold steady at around 1.5%. National trends can only tell you so much and local market conditions vary widely. It is important to understand the value of your home and seek advice before deciding to act or wait.

Learn more here.

Base Rate & Inflation

The Bank of England Base rate remains since 30 April at 3.75%.

The Middle East war continues to disrupt transportation and energy supplies which in turn impacts fuel. Energy costs are expected to rise. The impact on the economy will depend on how these increase.

Inflation has rised to 3.3%, higher that what they predicted in February (which was before the start of this war). The expectation is that inflation will be higher by year end.

The priority of the Bank of England is to get inflation back to its target in the medium term.

The table below shows the bank rate since 2005.

Source: Bank of England

Learn more here.

Royal Institute of Chartedered Surveyors (RICS)

RICS produce a survey which is a monthly snapshot of the housing market based on surveyors who operate in the residential sales and lettings markets.

Their latest survey indicates that the UK residential market was challenging in May, with some indicators suggesting that the market was beginning to stabilise.

Their survey results indicate that new buyer enquiries were at -34% in May, unchanged since April. Agreed sales also remained subdued, resulting in an unchanged net balance of -37%. However, the net impact is that the pace of this decline is reducing.

Sales transactions are taking longer to complete. The average time from listing to completion rose to 21.5 weeks, the longest duration recorded since the RICA dataset began in 2017.

Looking ahead, near-term sales expectations are improving to -25%, compared with readings of -32% and -34% in the previous surveys.

Price expectations remain weaker in the near term, with a net balance of -45% expecting prices to fall over the coming three months. However, expectations for the year ahead have moved into positive territory at +6%.

Tarrant Parsons, RICS Head of Market Research and Analysis, says:

The latest survey data suggest the recent downturn in activity may be beginning to stabilise, with several key indicators broadly holding steady. However, as they remain in negative territory, it would be premature to interpret this as the start of a recovery.

“The decline in CPI inflation to 2.8% in April provided some temporary relief, but the Bank of England has signalled that further inflationary pressures are likely as higher energy costs continue to pass through. Against this backdrop, the prospect of further rate rises cannot be dismissed, and until there is greater clarity, market sentiment is likely to remain fragile.”

Take a look at this - since 2000 surveyors have shared their outlook on the agreed sales.

Learn more here.

Our Perspective

Ceri Owen, our founder says:

For anyone thinking of selling right now, its critical that the pricing strategy is carefully thought through so that you don't over price and sit on the market. It then becomes much more difficult to achieve a sale.

Despite these challenging conditions, when properties are priced right and presented well, they sell quickly. The average time to sell in May was 60 days. Our staged homes sold as 50% faster.

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