The latest research from London’s largest lettings and sales estate agent, Foxtons, has revealed that just over a year on from the mini budget responsible for the declining health of the property market, the capital has turned a corner, with an uplift in activity helping to restimulate the market.  The research by Foxtons analysed the health of the London market since the mini budget in September 2022, the impact it had and how the market has bounced back in recent months. The latest full monthly transaction data for March of this year shows that sales have once again started to rise, climbing to 5,060 from the market low witnessed in February – an 11% month on month increase. Harrow has seen the sharpest return to form, with transaction levels up 43.4%, followed by Kensington and Chelsea (+42.9%) and Redbridge (42.9%). Sellers are also returning to the fold, with the number of homes listed for sale hitting 101,457 in September of this year, marking a full return to pre-mini budget market conditions, with every borough seeing an increase in stock for sale versus the previous low seen in March of this year.  Mini budget impact on house price The research shows that the average London house price* had been climbing steadily in the run up to the mini budget, increasing by 1% between July and September 2022. However, in the months that followed, it fell by -4.2% to a low of £520,961 in March of this year.  The biggest declines were seen across the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea (-11.2%), Brent (-8.7%) and Islington (-6.9%), while just four boroughs avoided a mini budget induced market downturn – Tower Hamlets, Hounslow, Greenwich and Havering. Drop in sales stock Further analysis by Foxtons* shows that this drop in London house prices was driven by a two pronged reduction in both available stock and buyer appetite.  In September of last year, there were just shy of 100,000 homes listed for sale across the London market. This fell to a low of 86,291 homes listed for sale by January 2023 and by March, total stock levels still sat some way off pre-mini budget levels at just 89,279.  Again, Islington ranked as one of the worst hit boroughs, with sale stock falling by -19.1% between September 2022 and March 2023. Waltham Forest and Lambeth also saw reductions of -19%.  Transactional decline But it wasn’t just a reduction in seller activity that impacted the market, internal data from Foxtons shows that there was a decline in buyer interest, with buyer applications falling by -46% between September and October 2022.*  Further research by Foxtons also shows that some 8,311 property sales completed in September 2022*, the third consecutive month that London transaction levels had exceeded the 8,000 threshold.  Following the mini budget, this figure fell consistently every month, hitting a low of 4,531 homes sold in February of this year.  Signs of the London market revival However, the research by Foxtons suggests that the London market has now turned the corner. Foxtons internal data shows that buyer applicant levels have increased by 27% between September of this year and October, with October 2023 also seeing 69% more applicants versus October 2022, with this number expected to increase further by the end of the month.* The latest full monthly transaction data for March of this year shows that sales have once again started to rise, climbing to 5,060 from the market low witnessed in February – an 11% month on month increase. Harrow has seen the sharpest return to form, with transaction levels up 43.4%, followed by Kensington and Chelsea (+42.9%) and Redbridge (42.9%). Sellers are also returning to the fold, with the number of homes listed for sale hitting 101,457 in September of this year, marking a full return to pre-mini budget market conditions, with every borough seeing an increase in stock for sale versus the previous low seen in March of this year.  Foxtons CEO, Guy Gittins, commented:  “There’s no doubt that the government’s mini budget caused an almost immediate decline in property market health and this impact reverberated across the entire country. This was no different across the London market, where months of otherwise steady momentum in stock levels and buyer activity were slowed by the uncertainty and market nervousness the mini budget brought. The good news is that we certainly seem to have turned a corner and across the capital, stock levels have returned to pre-mini budget norms. At Foxtons, we’ve seen a 26% year on year increase in new sales instructions. So it’s reassuring to see that London’s sellers have placed their trust in us during these tough times, helping us to regain our position as London’s number 1 estate agency in the process*, while the data also suggests that the capital’s buyers have now emerged from their mini-budget boltholes in order to transact.  As a result, the market is largely expected to finish on a positive note by the end of the year and this growing market sentiment should only be strengthened by the Bank of England’s decision to freeze interest rates in September.” You can view the full data tables online here.  *House price and transaction data sourced from the Gov – UK House Price Index (July 2023 – latest available) Transaction data based on March latest as volume figures for the most recent months are deemed not yet reliable for reporting. Foxtons buyer applicant numbers based on the number of buyers applying to purchase a property and based on the monthly totals seen in September and October 2022, versus September and October 2023. Note – October data not yet fully matured.  For sale stock levels sourced from Rightmove. Source of Foxton’s position as London’s number 1 estate agent sourced from TwentyCI data, H1 2023 v H1 2022 market share and market share growth of New Instructions at a brand level. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals 

Scheme Will Complete Conversion of Office Park to 100% Residential Under PDR Addington Capital, the property investment and asset management specialist and its investor partner ICG have started work on the final phase of their Headingley Park residential scheme. An additional 70 new residential units will be created at Stockdale House; the fifth and largest building on the site. Headingley Park is an office to residential conversion scheme in which four office buildings have already been converted to create 152 residential units. This final phase of 70 units at the fifth building, Stockdale House, will take the overall development to 222 units. Work has started following the NHS vacating the offices in the building. Stockdale House is being converted under the last major PD Prior Approval issued in Leeds and the new units will be provided over ground and five upper floors. The scheme is designed to meet current space standards and will be completed in Q3 2024. The Headingley Park development has proved attractive to young professionals and post graduate students in Leeds, due to being close to the City Centre and the University, in a large 6.5-acre parkland setting. Individual buildings provide 30 to 40 units which are predominantly studio, one and two-bedroom apartments. The conversion has been well received by renters to date, with the completed phases being 100% let and achieving rents of £900 and £1,275 pcm for one- and two-bedroom apartments. Headingley Park is currently ranked, “The best place to live in Leeds” by HomeViews. The scheme has a residents’ lounge, co working area and large landscaped gardens. Martin Roberts Principal of Addington Capital said, “We are delighted to be underway with the conversion of Stockdale House. The 70 high quality apartments will have spectacular views across the City and meet the growing need of today’s renters in Leeds.” “The Stockdale House development completes the conversion of Headingley Park from an in-town office park to a 100% residential development. We believe that this is an exemplar for Permitted Development conversion of offices to residential and a road map for future schemes.” He continued, “Given the falling demand for offices and the increased costs of making those properties energy efficient, we believe a relaxation of the size limit of new PD conversion, (currently up to 1,500 sq. m), would be a fast way to increase the supply of much needed residential from brownfield sites, with a low embedded carbon solution.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals 

Searchland, the development site sourcing specialists, has partnered with Rightmove, the UK’s largest property portal, to help tackle the housing crisis by further streamlining the ability for housebuilders to deliver much needed stock. Rightmove has been the driving force behind the evolution of how we buy and sell homes across the UK and today, boasts the highest level of traffic of all UK portals, making it the go to platform for property buyers of all shapes and sizes – including those looking for land sites, commercial plots and homes abroad. The portal is built on a wealth of data, allowing users to search by property type, size, room number and proximity, as well as providing information on mortgages, estate agents and most importantly, current market values.  Searchland is also no stranger to driving innovation within the UK property sector, having already changed the way the development industry operates, providing automated results covering everything from DTV letter sending, site sourcing workflow, strategic land data, DNO and HMO data, planning applications, ownership records, sold price comparables and planning constraints.  In May, the company launched in Scotland, making it the first site sourcing platform to offer data for the whole of Britain. Just a month later, Searchland also launched its integrated AI powered interface, dramatically reducing the time it takes for developers to ask questions of a given council’s local planning documents, both adopted and emerging. Searchland and Rightmove Data Services team up to help tackle the housing crisis Both platforms are the powerhouses of their respective sectors and their partnership is set to further streamline the property development process. While Searchland already utilises a huge amount of market data, the problem they and many developers face is the lagged nature of property data reporting.  While the Land Registry provides a great deal of data on areas such as sales volumes and sold prices , these figures are reported on a considerable lag of up to six months. This means the information being reported isn’t always representative of market conditions today.  This unique partnership will see Rightmove Data Services provide market comparable data to the Searchland platform from their own listings, allowing developers a real time look at how the market is performing.  But it’s not just the current value of potential land sites that developers will be able to benefit from. Searchland will also be utilising data from Rightmove Data Services to deliver insight on all properties available, both new-build and existing, as well as rental properties, not just those up for sale.  With this immense amount of data feeding into Searchland’s search algorithms, developers will be able to access a vast array of information from property build dates, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, parking availability and more.  And it’s not just the residential development sector that is due to benefit, the addition of live and historic rental data provides huge benefit for those working within both the social housing and build to rent sectors. Not to mention the addition of dedicated retirement home stock data, as well as information on auction trends and the sale price achieved.  In partnering with Rightmove Data Services, Searchland is set to become the most comprehensive source of information available to developers across all sectors of the market, providing an unrivalled level of data and insight, not just historically, but on the present day landscape as well. Co-founder and CEO of Searchland, Mitchell Fasanya, commented: “Technology has played a key role in the evolution of the property market and it continues to do so today. Whether you’re a developer looking to source a land site or a residential buyer looking for your next home, the speed, convenience and ease of the process has come on leaps and bounds in recent years.  While this is partly down to the ‘usability’ of platforms such as Rightmove and Searchland, the secret sauce to success is the abundance and availability of robust data and being able to provide such data in a quickly digestible format.  In this respect, the partnership between Searchland and Rightmove Data Services is a match made in heaven and the wealth of data they will be able to provide us will not only supercharge the Searchland offering even further, but add further value to additional sectors such as the social housing and build to rent sectors.  For the nation’s developers, this means even more power at their fingertips when it comes to site sourcing, allowing them to swiftly form a complete view of any given area of the property market, enabling them to increase the level of stock they are able to deliver in the process.” Simon Dawson, Director of Rightmove Data Services and Insights commented: “As part of the UKs leading property portal, Rightmove Data Services understands how important it is for developers to have accurate and contemporary information when appraising development sites. By working with Searchland, we are able to provide some of the biggest developers in the country access to our unique property and pricing data. This relationship highlights our dedication to enhancing the property development landscape and providing superior data in the easiest to use format” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals 

New research from Fair Fix, the boiler engineer experts, reveals that the carbon footprint caused by heating homes in England has increased by as much as 5.9% across some areas of the nation.  Fair Fix has estimated the amount of carbon emissions created by heating England’s homes in 2021 and 2022 to see how well the country is managing its carbon footprint. The calculation is based on an estimated carbon footprint for the average home, multiplied by the country’s entire dwelling stock.  It is estimated that heating a single home for a year creates 2,806kg of carbon emissions. In 2022, England’s dwelling stock increased by 1% to total 25.2 million homes. As a result, as a nation we created an estimated 70.6 million tonnes of emissions, also 1% higher than in 2021.  Regional look The South East created the largest regional carbon footprint in 2022, emitting some 11.4 million tonnes of emissions; an annual increase of 1%.  With emissions of 10.5 million tonnes, London’s carbon footprint also grew by 1%, as did the footprints of the East of England (7.8m tonnes), West Midlands (7.2m tonnes), and East Midlands (6.1m tonnes).  The smallest footprint increase was recorded in the North East where total estimated emissions from heating homes hit 3.5 million tonnes, an annual rise of 0.7%.  Worst local authorities On a local authority level, 2022’s largest home heating footprint was found in Birmingham (1.3m tonnes), followed by Leeds (1m tonnes) and North Yorkshire (848,891 tonnes). But the biggest increase was recorded in the City of London, where the carbon footprint increased by 5.9%. Two other London boroughs complete the three areas of biggest growth with Tower Hamlets and Brent increasing emissions by 3.1% and 2.8% respectively.  Warwickshire’s Rugby also saw an increase of 2.8%, before London boroughs returned again with a 2.6% rise in Newham and a 2.5% rise in Hammersmith & Fulham.  Founder of Fair Fix, Tyrone Ekrem, commented: “England is in the middle of a perpetual housing crisis. We are a nation in desperate need of more homes. But we are also a nation that, alongside every other country in the world, needs to slash its carbon emissions or else face the end of the world as we know it.  As we build more homes, our carbon footprint rises. So if we’re to solve our nation’s two biggest issues at once, it’s vital that we find a way of reducing the emissions created by heating our homes.  A big part of this effort should involve replacing outdated boilers and repairing those that aren’t working to their maximum efficiency. It’s something easy that we can all do to play our part in reducing England’s carbon footprint and hitting net zero for the benefit of the world.” Data tables  Data tables and sources can be viewed online, here. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals 

New research from eXp UK, the platform for personal estate agents, has revealed that the gap between the very top and very bottom of the property market is currently a whopping 183,900% across England and Wales, when it comes to the highest and lowest sold price so far this year.  eXp UK analysed sold price data for transactions to have completed so far this year (Jan to Aug – latest available), looking at the market gap between the very top and bottom ends of the market.  The research shows that so far in 2023, the most expensive property sale has been an apartment in Ashburton Place in the City of London, which sold in June for a staggering £38,640,0000.  At the other end of the market, a terraced home in Cumberland Street in County Durham sold in March of this year for just £21,000.  As a result, the current gap between the very top and bottom end of the property market across England and Wales currently sits at 183,900% – a difference in sold price of over £38.6m. In London, the most affordable home sold in 2023 so far comes in at £80,000, meaning the gap between the bottom end of the market and the £38.64m home sold in the City of London is still 48,200% – the largest market gap at regional level.  In the South East, the most expensive home sold in 2023 to date went for £20.75m, some 47,601% more than the region’s most affordable sale at £43,500.  The South West ranks third in this respect, where the most affordable home sold commanded £35,000, while the region’s most expensive home sold for £13.5m – a market gap of 38,471%.  The East Midlands is home to the smallest market gap of all regions of England and Wales. Even still, the most expensive home sold so far this year went for £2.5m while the most affordable sold for £30,000, meaning the market gap across the region still sits at 8,235%. Head of eXp UK, Adam Day, commented: “Getting a foot on the housing ladder is a tough ask in this day and age and the average cost of a home has spiralled in recent years.  However, the market itself is incredibly fragmented and while average house price data gives us some insight, it certainly doesn’t tell the whole story.   It’s fascinating to see just how large the gap is between the very top and very bottom of the house price rankings and how this gap is sizable regardless of which region you look at.” Full survey results can be viewed online, here. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals 

The latest research by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has revealed that a fifth of all homes sold so far this year across the capital have done so for £1m or more, by far the largest proportion when compared to other major cities across England and Wales.  Benham and Reeves analysed sold price data from the Land Registry for property sales to have completed so far this year (Jan to Aug 2023 – latest available) across 12 major cities. Benham and Reeves then looked at what proportion of total sales sold for £1m or more, the average sold price and the total value of homes sold.  The London market continues to lag behind the rest of the nation when it comes to the annual rate of house price growth, down -0.8% in the last year, one of just three regions to have seen a year on year decline.  However, when it comes to homes sold at £1m or more, London remains the dominant force within the market.  The research by Benham and Reeves shows that so far this year, 3,716 properties have sold for £1m or more across London, equating to 21.1% of total sales completed across the capital.  Bristol ranks as the city with the second highest number of £1m property transactions, although the 86 homes sold for £1m or more equate to just 1.9% of total homes sold.  Sheffield (0.9%), Newcastle (0.6%) and Leeds (0.6%) also rank within the top five, albeit £1m property sales account for less than 1% of all homes sold in 2023.  London also sits top in terms of both the median sold price and total value of £1m property sales.  Homes selling above the £1m threshold have averaged a sold price of £1.45m versus £565,000 across the rest of the London market.  In total, London’s £1m homes have sold for a combined value of £312.2m, with Bristol again ranking second albeit someway off the pace set by London with a total value of £156.1m. Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, commented: “It’s fair to say that the London market as a whole has been underperforming for some time and we simply haven’t seen the same high rates of house price growth envelope the capital when compared to the rest of the nation.  However, there’s no doubt it remains the driving force when it comes to homes sold for £1m or more and in this respect, no other major city comes close.  We’ve seen strong levels of demand so far this year across the upper tiers of the London market, buoyed by the return of foreign homebuyers, in particular.  So while London may not be seeing any spectacular growth at a top line level, it is very much a case of quality of quantity in the current market.” Data tables Data tables and sources can be viewed online, here. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals