If you search Rightmove today for £1m plus homes in London there are over 12,000 listing. According the the latest update from The Land Registry last month there were 365 sold.
The total will climb as completions are registered but it does illustrate the importance of sellers getting a good agent to help them find a buyer and to buyers of just how keen agents and their clients will be to receive an offer – at what ever level!
When you look at the latest numbers from the estate agents ‘union’ the National Association of Estate Agents they have some startling figures for the ‘average’ estate agency;-
In December they had 386 buyers registered looking for a home, 41 homes for sale & sold just 6! In November according to NAEA 84% sold for less than the guide price.
It’s perhaps no wonder that at the end of each month so many people are unhappy with the agent – 35 clients with unsold homes and 380 buyers still looking for a property!
Last week we got the latest tax receipts from HMRC which included the total raised from all Stamp Duty Land Tax. Many people had been begging the Chancellor to review at least the top tiers where the cost has bitten hardest. Transactions at £2m+ have tumbled directly as a result of the transaction friction.
Unfortunately the latest tax receipts don’t yet give weight to this argument with the total UK pot last year at £11.44bn up from £10.3bn in 2015. Residential property transactions according to more recent numbers from HMRC generated £8.3bn of which £2.3bn came from the 149,400 transactions that were classed as ‘additional properties’ following the changes made in April. The additional 3% that buyers of additional properties paid was £1.2bn.
I suspect that everyone thinks that since London contributes around 40% of the total SDLT take this number will fall through 2017 at which time the Government may well find itself under pressure to amend the rates.
