Cardiff house sales speeding up

Homes across the UK are taking on average 84 days to sell (12 weeks), nine days longer than last year, according to the latest data provided by Barclays Mortgages and Hometrack. However, the picture across the UK is mixed, with areas such as Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Cardiff and Wolverhampton showing improving market conditions.

Across the UK, Scotland is the fastest property market to sell a home with the research revealing it takes just over one month to sell a home in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 31 days and 39 days respectively (4.4 and 5.5 weeks) – though homes here were selling about one week faster last year.

In the Welsh capital, Cardiff, it takes one week less than last year to sell a property, spending on average 60 days (8.5 weeks) on the market. A combination of infrastructure investment, large student numbers, significant job creation in the New Year and below national average house prices have all helped to speed up sales.

Other locations that have the most improving housing markets are Newcastle and Middlesbrough, where properties are taking 19 and 16 days less to sell than last year (2.7 and 2.2 weeks). Additional cities which showed homes are spending less time on the property market include: Liverpool (13 days or 1.9 weeks), Cardiff (6 days or 0.9 weeks), Wolverhampton (5 days or 0.8 weeks) and Bradford (4 days or 0.6 weeks). Whereas the housing markets in Birmingham and Sheffield have remained mostly static.

In terms of areas showing slowdowns, homes in Derby have experienced the biggest increase in time spent on the property market, with properties in the city taking almost one third longer to sell compared to last year – an increase of over one month or 34 days (4.8 weeks).

Overall, homes in Middlesbrough spend the longest amount of time on the market (114 days/16.3 weeks, which is down from 130 days last year or 18.5 weeks, partly due to the disproportionate number of buy-to-let properties affected by tax changes and low demand.

Hannah Bernard, Head of Mortgages at Barclays, said: “The property market has many components to it which can make it tricky to navigate especially for first time buyers. We want to help our customers become more knowledgeable about the overall market and provide a guide for them to make the most informed decisions they can when deciding to move home. Our research not only shows the changes in the market over the past year, but also acts as a predictor to what we might be able to expect in the months to come. We value our customers and do our best to speed up the process to get them to purchase their new home as fast as possible. We offer speedy home mortgage applications, averaging 11 days to process.

“By looking at the time of sale, prospective buyers and sellers can have a better overall knowledge of the time it may take to sell their home and where in the UK the changes are. Our aim is to make sure customers are confident in the decisions they make as well as aware and prepared for the financial implications associated with moving home.”

Table 1: Regional table showing average time to sell a property

Source: Hometrack N.B. data was supplied in weeks, days are approximate.