u/Shoddy_Sir_7849

Let us be frank… the doom monger narrative of the UK property market is lazy.

If demand had fallen off a cliff, these numbers would not exist.

3 years, same level of April sales agreed. The British property market is working.

Yet, what has changed is that it is no longer carrying poor over pricing or average execution like it did in 21/22.

Remember, for every home that sold stc in April, 7 other homes didnt sell … so realistic pricing is everything.

Have an awesome day

Christopher

Week 17 confirms something important.

This is not a weak housing market. It is a crowded one.
New listings surged again to 43,421, massively ahead of the long term Week 17 average of 34.5k. That has pushed total available stock to 731,910 homes for sale across the UK, up sharply from 579k three years ago.

And that changes everything.

Buyers now have options. Lots of them. Which means sellers are no longer competing against the market. They are competing against every similar home nearby.

Yet despite that increased competition, demand remains remarkably resilient.

27,674 homes were sold subject to contract last week, comfortably ahead of the long term Week 17 average of 25.1k and the best week for 45 weeks. Year to date, sales agreed are running 4.2% ahead of the same point in 2024, with 421,983 homes sold stc so far in 2026.

So, the UK property market is still moving.

But it is becoming increasingly selective.

13.1% of UK homes reduced their asking price in the last month, almost identical to Week 16. That tells us sellers are still adjusting to market reality. At the same time, 14.6% of homes on the market secured a buyer in the last month, again broadly in line with long term norms.

The underlying pattern has not changed.

Only 53.3% of homes that left estate agents books in April actually sold and completed. The remaining 46.7% came off unsold.

That is the real story of the 2026 market.

There are buyers.
There is activity.
There are deals being done every day.
But buyers are disciplined, unemotional and value driven.

The homes that are priced correctly, presented properly and launched intelligently are selling.

The ones that are not?

At first glance, the last decade looks brutal for tenants. Rents across the UK have surged, in some cases by hundreds of pounds a month. Inner London now sits above £3,000, and even traditionally more affordable regions have pushed past the £1,000 mark.

But here is where the story gets interesting.

Strip out inflation, which has totalled 39.8% since 2016, and the picture changes quite dramatically. Not every region has kept pace. In fact, some have quietly fallen behind. Outer London (+17%), the South East (+21%), and the North East (+25%) have all seen rental growth that lags behind inflation, so in real terms, tenants are effectively better off.

Contrast that with areas like the North West (+58%), Scotland (+51%), and the South West (+50%), where rental growth has comfortably outpaced inflation. These are not random spikes. They tend to reflect local wage growth, lifestyle shifts, and demand patterns rather than pure landlord pricing power.

And that is the key point.

Rents do not exist in isolation. They are anchored to affordability, which is ultimately driven by local salaries. When you view the data through that lens, some of these increases look less dramatic, and some of the flatter regions start to make more sense.

Interesting stats on UK flats for the weekend

Blue line - Flats as a % of all homes FOR SALE

Bronze line - Flats as a % of all homes SOLD STC

See the disconnect!!!

If Rents Are Already Frozen… Why Freeze Them?

Policy or politics. What is really driving this?

In Q1 2025, the average UK rent stood at £1,712 per month, across 306,000 lets.

Twelve months on, rents have barely moved.

Q1 2026 shows an average of £1,727 per month, with 363,000 lets agreed.

More lets. Almost no rental growth.

At a time when rent freezes are being discussed, the data suggests something different.

The market may already have solved the problem

I am an independent property journalist and using data and analysis, I have been able to calculate that the choice of Swansea estate agent could cost you upto £10.6k

If every Swansea estate agent had the same average £250k Swansea home for sale, the price they would achieve differs by £10.6k by the ten biggest Swansea agent

I will be revealing the top 10 agents name on Friday 8th May

Any guesses who the best and worst are ??

Could be interesting to some people?

The interesting thing here is Inner London in Covid. See how it dropped like a stone in 2020 compared to the other regions