The latest results show that the number of UK monthly house sales fell in June by 5.3%. It appears that the wall-to-wall coverage of the World Cup, Wimbledon and the one day cricket has caused homebuyers to temporarily place their home buying plans on hold.
The effect of the World Cup is clearly illustrated when you compare the sales in June this year with those seen in June last year. June 2010 was 7.0% down on June 2009’s level.
The hardest hit regions were the West Midlands where there was a dramatic slump of 26.4% in the number of houses that were sold in June, followed by the South West down 11.4%, Wales down 10.6%, the North East down 8.8% and London down 7.7%.
Only two regions in the UK were able to report a rise in June house sales – they were the North West where sales were up 10.5% and the East Midlands where sales rose 6.7%.
Commenting on the latest Index results, Stephen Watson, managing director, Agency Express, said: “The heightened interest in the World Cup and the number of games shown live seems to have drawn people’s attention away from closing the deal on their prospective properties.
“Now that England have crashed out of the tournament after a number of lack lustre displays we can expect homebuyers to return to the housing market with real conviction to get their new property sorted.
“With interest rates still at record low levels and house prices having stabilised, we can expect to see a surge in house sales in July before the holiday season kicks in.”
