Busiest month for ten years as home-buying supersedes summer holidays

The rulebook has been rewritten as the post-lockdown mini-boom accelerates rather than slows down. There is normally a seasonal slowdown in housing market activity over the summer months, as both buyers and sellers turn their attention to summer holidays. But this year, home movers have put more property on the market and have agreed more sales than in any month for over ten years, worth a record total of over £37 billion. This is leading to monthly price increases in ten out of twelve regions, with a record high in new seller asking prices in seven of those regions. Prices usually fall at this time of year, as sellers try to tempt holiday distracted buyers, with the national average monthly fall for the last ten years being 1.2%. While there is a slight monthly fall of 0.2% (-£768), this is due to London’s more normal seasonal fall of 2.0%, reversing what would otherwise have been an unseasonal national rise.