House sales up in December
The number of homes changing hands increased slightly during December, Government figures showed today.
A total of 61,000 properties were sold for more than £40,000 during the month on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared with 52,000 in November, according to HM Revenue & Customs.
But sales levels were still 42% down on those seen a year earlier, with 105,000 homes changing hands in December 2007.
David Page, an economist at Investec Securities, said he did not think December’s rise signalled a pick up in sales levels given that the number of mortgages approved for house purchase was still falling.
He added that the Revenue’s figures were also seasonally adjusted.
But he said: “Rightmove reported a pick up in web searches at the start of the year and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said buyer inquiries rose at the tail end of last year.
“It may be that the access to cheap mortgages, if you can get a mortgage, and steep falls in prices are getting people to look at house purchase.”
He said this may lead to a pick up in transactions from what is a very low level.
The Revenues figures showed that during the whole of 2008 only 930,000 homes changed hands, 43% less than the 1.6 million transactions which took place in 2007.
The number of sales being carried out fell steeply throughout the year, dropping from 305,000 during the first quarter of 2008 to 182,000 in the final three months of the year.
The figures came as data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders showed mortgage advances in December were 47% lower than they had been 12 months earlier.
For the year as a whole, total mortgage lending dropped by 30% to hit a six-year low of £256.4 billion.
The group warned that lending levels would fall further in the coming months, with improvements in the market unlikely to be seen in completion levels until the second half of the year at the earliest.
The mortgage shortage is continuing to stifle the property market, as people who want to get on to the property ladder or trade up it are struggling to raise the finance they need.
House price falls are also putting off potential buyers, as they delay making a purchase in the hope prices will drop further.
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