Sales of houses halve in a month

THE number of homes sold in April nearly halved compared with March, HM Revenue and Customs figures show.

Across the UK, an estimated 46,440 residential property transactions took place last month, down by 46.1 per cent compared with 86,200 sales in March.

April’s total was also a 53.4 per cent decrease compared with the same period in 2019. The latest monthly total is the lowest on comparable records going back 15 years to

April 2005.

HMRC’s figures show completed sales with a value of £40,000 and above, but cautioned that its latest releases are subject to some uncertainty, and therefore its figures are provisional.

Its report said: “Impacts from Covid-19 are evident within the latest HMRC UK transactions data.”

The UK housing market was on hold throughout last month as part of efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus.

But last week the transactions in

England were kick-started once more, with people now able to visit estate agents and undertake physical property viewings, subject to Government guidance.

Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and former residential chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said: “This data comes at a particularly interesting time, just after the Covid-19 bombshell hit, so one of the first to reliably assess the damage.

“This has been significant with probably worse to come, while new normal values are established.

“On a more positive note, activity has picked up considerably since we returned to work, at least in part, although it will take several months for interest to build to offers and completions and be reflected in these or similar reports.”

Property website Rightmove said that on Tuesday this week it recorded its busiest day since March 5, with nearly 5.3 million visits.

This was up by 4 per cent on the same day in May 2019.

Rightmove also said locations in Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds have shown particularly big upswings in buyer searches compared with a year ago.

‘Activity has picked up considerably since we returned to work’