The latest data from HM Land Registry shows that completed applications saw a fall last month.
However, whilst February saw a decline on a monthly basis – from 1,782,088 in January to 1,632,969 last month – the number of completed applications was up on the corresponding month last year by 116,373.
Of this year’s completed applications, 376,546 were to update existing titles, down from January’s total of 462,352.
Also seeing a fall was the number of applications to gain an official copy of the register, dropping from 825,613 in January to 796,961 last month.
The fall for official searches was slightly more significant, with completed applications standing at 186,329, down from 211,393 in January.
Postal applications from non-account holders also observed a decline, albeit more modest, dropping from 26,002 in the first month of the year to 23,910 in February.
The region home to the highest number of completed applications was the South East at 376,385. Behind this was Greater London at 313,240, followed by the North West at 185, 253.
Where local authority areas were concerned, Birmingham saw the greatest number of applications being completed at 26,256. The City of Westminster was behind this at 21,991, with Leeds also making the top three at 18,730.
The full dataset can be accessed here.
