Number of transactions for February up 21% on twelve months ago.

Number of transactions for February up 21% on twelve months ago.

94,590 transactions over £40,000 took place in February, up 20.9% on the year before according to HMRC. This is also 10.9% higher than in January.

Seasonally adjusted statistics also show a rise, with a 5.5% rise from January to February and a 16.1% rise from February 2015 to February 2016.

Between January and February last year, the number of transactions barely changed, going from 77,750 to 78,540.

Andy Sommerville, director of Search Acumen said: “We’re finally seeing the impact of buy to let stamp duty changes with record growth in residential transactions recorded at their highest levels since November 2007. This momentum is likely to continue until March at least, and subsequently dip once the changes are introduced following April 1st. The market looks to be in its healthiest state for eight years in terms of transaction volumes, which is encouraging against a climate of political and economic uncertainty arising from the Brexit debate and the general health of the global economy.

“Non-residential property transactions have also kept pace with residential transactions, reaching the highest recorded level since April 2008. Following last week’s Budget, we’re likely to see commercial property transactions grow as the lower and middle end of the market benefits from the reform of stamp duty land tax for commercial purchases, bringing an end to the unpopular ‘slab’ system. Similar changes for residential transactions had a positive impact on the lower and middle end of the residential market when they were introduced over a year ago.

“However, higher value commercial property sales will now be hit by a stamp duty increase, and it remains to be seen what impact this will have – in the residential market there were some signs that it reduced demand at the top end. Foreign investors will be keeping a keen eye on movement in property prices as well as weighing up the potential impact of Brexit as a result of these changes.”

Josh Morris

Josh is the Journalist for the Today's Group and writes many of the articles for Today's Conveyancer. He graduated with a degree in Physics from Cardiff University in 2009 before training as a journalist. He has previously written for The Times, The Mirror and The Daily Express.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *