What’s going on with the Scottish housing market in August 2024?
As Shawn Wood, Head of Conveyancing at Watermans, predicted back in May, the Bank of England has cut interest rates. Making it easier for people to buy as monthly mortgage payments are reduced. Since the general election in July, there’s been a slightly optimistic, albeit cautious, feeling in the housing market. But what do the stats say?
Scottish Housing Market Statistics August 2024
Well, there was a summer dip in activity as usual, Rightmove reports this has been the case for the past 18 years. However, thanks to the interest rates announcement they also report a 19% increase in the number of potential buyers contacting estate agents since 1st August, compared to the same period in 2023. That sounds healthy!
Even more good news is that, even with the summer dip, property listings rose by 9.2% year-on-year in Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and the Borders. And the volume of sales rose 22%. Summer holidays? What are those?
However, less competition means more power to the buyers. They’ve been savvy with their offers. Houses went for an average of 102.4% of home report value, 1.3% down on the same period last year. But this was before the interest rates were cut, with more people looking to buy it’s looking like it could be a good autumn for sellers, shorter times on the market and properties going for more over home report value.
What’s next?
Alister Lee, Director of Property Sales at Waterans said,
“The rate cut has had a positive impact on home-mover sentiment and this should continue through Autumn. This combined with the increase in Rightmove activity year-on-year means we can head into Autumn with cautious optimism. October’s budget and the overall US economy are the two big ‘unknowns’ at the moment so we’ll see how that pans out in the coming months, but so far so good for the second half of the year!”