National and Oxford housing market struggling

Property sales were down by a fifth across the UK during March, and down by 29% in London.

New Land Registry data paints a gloomy picture of the market, showing that the number of transactions completed in March across the UK fell 20.3% annually to 73,977.

The biggest falls were in London where sales were down 29% to 6,180, and in the south-west with a 24% decline to 6,640.

Overall sales in England were down 21.8% to 58,203 on a yearly basis.

The Land Registry data also shows house prices growing at the slowest rate since August 2013, up 3% annually in May to £226,351, a slowdown from the 3.5% annual growth recorded in April.

The largest annual growth was in the east midlands, with prices up 6.3% to £190,216 on average.

London saw the steepest annual fall with average prices down 0.4% to £478,853.

In Oxford transaction volumes are a further 4% down year on year to 2,839 and prices are up just 2% compared to the same period 12 months ago at an average of £421,522.

It seems to me that lower demand is forcing vendors to be more realistic with prices because there are fewer buyers who are prepared to shrug off economic and political uncertainty.  Many Oxford homes are selling only following a price reduction as vendors realign their asking price to a more sensible level, or are completing at a discount on the asking price.