Steel city is a home buyer hotspot
Sheffield agents struggle for stock amid a buying boom and the prime Yorkshire market is still strong. Sharon Dale reports.
Despite a booming housing market nationally, Sheffield is among the areas outside London to have experienced the highest drop in sales transactions, due mainly to a chronic shortage of homes for sale.
Property data and estate agent prospecting platform Homesearch.co.uk analysed its data to find out which agents, by postcode area, have experienced the best or toughest market conditions.
It found that estate agents in Sheffield have seen a 17.3 per cent fall in year-on-year sales volumes, ranking them in sixth position in the top 10 lowest performing areas out of over 100 major postcodes analysed.
Huddersfield also suffered a severe shortage of stock and its sales have fallen by 16.4 per cent over the past year.
This compares to booming Harrogate which is the best-selling area for agents outside of the capital after recording an11.5 per cent increase in sales for the same period.
Halifax was fifth in the bestsellers list with 5.9 per cent annual rise in transactions.
A key part of the study was to identify which postcodes are the most and least lucrative to estate agents. Sheffield ranked 28th nationally, with over £2.8bn of property sales generated by agents in the city in the last 12 months.
House prices in the Sheffield area rose 9.21 per cent yearon-year and properties took an average of 42 days to sell subject to contract.
This compares to Slough where properties take 71 days to sell, the slowest time period outside of London.
Sam Hunter, co-founder and chief operating officer at Homesearch, says: “It’s very clear from our data that the housing market in Sheffield presents one of the toughest battle grounds for estate agents outside of London.
“At a time when the national picture is buoyant and house prices have risen significantly in the last 12 months, the challenge facing agents in Sheffield is mainly due to a chronic shortage of sellable housing stock, with 29 buyers on average competing for every one property on the market.
“Estate agents there clearly have to work harder than ever to stimulate the market and win new instructions if they are to address this drop in sales transactions.”
The latest analysis of the UK’s prime residential properties by Savills reveals that those in Yorkshire increased by almost 10 per cent in value in the 12 months to the end of March.
The rise has been underpinned by high levels of buyer demand coupled with low levels of properties for sale.
Sought-after, higher value homes, defined as the five to ten per cent by value, in Harrogate and York, showed an annual rise of 8.4 per cent.
Nationally, prime residential markets showed annual price growth of nine per cent.
In the £2m plus country house market, prices have increased by 6.5 per cent year-on-year across the north of England and prices rose 10.3 per cent yearon-year,
though this is still 24 per cent below the peak of the 2007 market, demonstrating that there is room for further growth and highlighting the value of properties in the region in comparison to the country house market in London and the south east.
Ed Stoyle, director and head of residential sales at Savills in Yorkshire, says: “With the race for space yet to fully run its course, demand for homes outside
London remains extremely strong.
“The need for greenery clearly remains a factor and best in class country houses remain highly sought after. In Yorkshire, those close to the best schools and with good links to regional cities and London perform particularly well.
“While activity levels have slowed slightly in the mainstream market, there is still a strong core of unmet demand at the top end of the market that, for now, remains undeterred by higher costs of debt, rising costs of living and the geo-political uncertainty triggered by the war in Ukraine.
“Here, equity outweighs debt as a source of funding and much higher levels of disposable income mean buyers have been more insulated against macro-economic pressures.”
Elsewhere, prime central London recorded its strongest quarterly price growth in eight years as international buyers began to re-enter a stockconstrained market. Prices ticked up 1.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year.
Ed Stoyle adds: “With hybrid working patterns now embedded, a dream move to the country is still at the forefront of the mind for many buyers.
“However, we’re also seeing many regional towns and villages showing stronger price growth, suggesting proximity to amenities is becoming a consideration.
“Looking ahead, the lack of suitable stock is expected to rebalance which in turn is likely to stabilise prices somewhat. As such, the rate of price growth is likely to slow as the year progresses given economic pressures.”
With the race for space yet set to fully run its course, demand for homes outside London remains extremely strong.