London remains the most valuable area of the UK property market
Despite a slowed down housing market, £99.3 billion worth of property has been sold across England and Wales so far this year alone, according to new research from eXp UK.
The study analysed sold price records from the Land Registry, looking at the individual price achieved for each of 276,785 homes to have sold across England and Wales so far this year using the latest available data.
The research found that across England and Wales as a whole, the value of the 276,785 property transactions covering January up to August 2023 nearly hit the £100 billion mark.
London remains the most valuable area of the property market, with some £21.6 billion worth of property sold so far this year, with the South East not far behind at £21 billion. The East of England with £11.8 billion and South West with £11 billion also ranked high. The worst performing region was the North East, where only £2.6 billion worth of property has been sold.
At the local authority level, London also reigned supreme, with Kensington and Chelsea sitting at the top as the nation’s most valuable property market, where £1.6 billion worth of homes have changed hands during the first eight months of this year.
Second in the list was the City of Westminster with £1.5 billion in property sold, with Wandsworth close behind at £1.45 billion. Buckinghamshire posted the fourth highest total value of homes sold across England and Wales and the highest outside of London at £1.4 billion.
“The property market may have cooled a tad in 2023 and, as a result, we’ve seen a reduction in house prices when compared to the giddy heights of last year when they hit record highs,” commented Adam Day, head of eXp UK. “But while it’s easy to get carried away with talk of an impending property market armageddon, we simply haven’t seen the drastic reductions that many had predicted at the start of the year, nor are we likely to.
“In fact, despite increasing mortgage rates and market uncertainty, the total value of homes changing hands so far this year has been staggering, which demonstrates the strength of the market and our unwavering appetite for homeownership.
“What’s more, this performance hasn’t been confined to the London market with Leeds, Birmingham, Cornwall, and Wiltshire all making the top 10 most valuable markets when it comes to the total value of property sold.”
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