Home sales inquiries rise in three areas
Three areas of Scotland are the only places in the UK to have seen an increase in home sales inquiries this year, despite an overall drop across the UK as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
The findings come from a study carried out by propert y trading firm WebuyanyHome, examining the effects of the pandemic on the housing market.
Figures show a considerable fall in house sales inquiries between January and September 2020 across the UK as a whole, falling by 32 per cent.
In Scotland, inquiries fell by almost 22 per cent.
However, Edinburgh, Clackmannanshire and Dunbart o n s h i r e b u c ke d t h e t r e n d , with an increase in interest compared to the same time last year - going up by 53.5 per cent, 40 per cent and 11.8 per cent respectively.
At t h e h e i g h t o f t h e f i r s t lockdown, between April and June, S cotland saw an even bigger drop-off than the rest of the nation.
Inquiries were down more than 48 per cent north of the Border, compared to nearly 38 per cent across the UK.
The largest decrease was in Stirling, with no sales enquiries in the second quar ter of 2020.
But Dundee has seen the biggest overall decline in interest, with zero enquiries between January and September.
The lowest decrease was in East Lothian, with a drop of just 4.5 per cent.
Nationwide, proper ties for t h e e l d e r l y s aw t h e b i g g e s t drop in enquiries during the first lockdown, falling by more than 60 per cent.
T h e s t u d y, w h i c h c a n b e a c c e s s e d a s a n i n t e r a c t i v e tool, also looks at the correlation between home sales figures and the amount of positive Covid-19 cases registered in each area, as well as factors such as seller demographics across regions.
A n a l y s i s i l l u s t r a t e s t h e impact Covid-19 has had and may continue to have on the Scottish and UK property markets.
Market experts are warning that market trends are expected to fluctuate significantly in the coming months as the nation continues to battle a second wave of the deadly disease, with people on the lowest incomes and least secure jobs likely to be hardest hit.
M a r k I r w i n , m a r k e t i n g director at Webuyanyhome, said: “The proper t y market, like the global economy, has gone through unprecedented changes in 2020, and the truth is that no one can be exactly sure what will happen next.
“We decided to examine our own data and create a proprietary tool to better predict some of the trends within the housing market.
“T h e f i n d i n g s i n d i c a t e d which parts of the UK will be most impacted by the economy’s struggles in the last year and who is set to recover best.
“By interpreting these figures and factoring in increasingly stringent Covid-19 protections, we expect the current ‘bubble’ we’re seeing to continue into early 2021, followed by a dip of up to 20 per cent if the economy worsens.
"We anticipate lower-value proper ties that don’t benefit from the stamp duty reduction to b e more acutely impacted, especially as they tend to belong to lower income residents.”