UK Property Market Returns to “Pre-Pandemic Norm” in March 2023

Research from TwentyEA reveals that 70% of UK property listed in the first 12 weeks of 2023 went on to be sold, which is the same as the long-term pre-Covid 2019 levels.

Volumes of new instructions for property coming to the market in 2023 to far are broadly like 2022 (2.6% increase) but supply is still an issue, some 7.7% lower than the pre-pandemic years of 2019 and 2020.

But while the number of sales agreed have fallen by 18.4% in the last year demand is 7.8% lower than pre-pandemic 2019.

Stuart Ducker, Strategic Solutions Director of TwentyEA, says: “The market is clearly returning to a pre-pandemic normal where in both 2019 and 2023, we have seen demand as a percentage of supply at 70%”.

“When looking at March 2023 in isolation, demand versus supply was 72% in 2023 versus 70% in 2019, so relative to supply, demand levels are stronger than they were the pre-pandemic”.

Meanwhile, Zoopla’s latest House Price Index has also revealed that the recent hangover of uncertainty surrounding the UK’s housing market may be ending. The Index reported that house prices increased by 4% in the last 12 months with market conditions at the end of March better than many had expected. 

Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla, says: “The housing market is arguably more balanced than it has been for more than three years. Levels of supply have recovered, and buyers and sellers are not miles apart on where they see pricing, and this means deals are being agreed at an increasing rate.”