Real estate sales in Britain have begun to decline rapidly after having surged in recent months, defying the difficult economic conditions caused by the global spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to widespread and comprehensive lockdowns in Britain last year and this year.
According to real estate market professionals, the reason sales have begun to trend downward is that the exemption from registration fees\u2014which had boosted the market and led to a recovery and rise in demand in recent months\u2014has expired.
According to a report published by the \u201cDaily Telegraph,\u201d government authorities recorded 82,110 housing transactions last month, a decrease of more than 61% from June\u2019s sales, which totaled 213,120 transactions.
Sales rose last June as buyers rushed to close deals in time to save on taxes.
The figure was only 1.8% higher than in July 2020, when the housing market reopened following the first lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The relevant government agency in the United Kingdom (HMRC) attributed the massive month-over-month decline to the expiration of the registration fee exemption at the end of last June.
The decline in sales was more pronounced than that recorded in April of this year, when transactions fell by approximately 36% following a rush to complete them before the previous registration fee deadline, which was set for March.
Lawrence Bowles, of Savills Real Estate, said: \u201cGiven that a buyer whose transaction closed on July 1 would have paid up to 12,500 pounds in additional registration fees compared to a transaction completed just one day earlier, it\u2019s no wonder we saw so many purchases being brought forward.\u201d.
Savills predicted that 2021 would be a \u201cbooming year\u201d for real estate transactions, with more than 1.6 million homes expected to be sold by the end of December.
Polls added: \u201cAnalyses indicate that the fluctuation in transactions is the result of a change in the tax system, not a fundamental shift in demand. However, the latest survey on buyer sentiment reveals that there remains unmet demand among prospective buyers for larger homes and more outdoor space, which will continue to support transactions in the near term.\u201d.
A rush by buyers to complete purchases before the registration fee exemption expired led to a 13.2% increase in home prices in the year ending in June 2021, the fastest growth rate since November 2004.
Anthony Codling, of the real estate website \u201cTwindig,\u201d said that the latest transaction figures represent the first of \u201ctwo dips during the exemption period,\u201d with another expected when the tax exemption ends completely next September.
He added: \u201cThe cliff edge in July may indicate that the wealthiest homebuyers are a fleet of first-time buyers, suggesting that this was a holiday for the cash-rich and those at the top of the housing ladder rather than those aspiring to get a foot on the ladder,\u201d according to The Daily Telegraph.
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Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> Minutes<\/span><\/span>Real estate sales in the UK have begun to decline rapidly after having surged in recent months, defying the difficult economic conditions caused by the global spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to widespread lockdowns in the UK last year and this year. The reason for the downward trend in sales is the expiration of the exemption from fees\u2026 Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":32447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-finance"],"acf":{"amlak_post_excerpt":"","amlak_post_excerpt_source":{"label":"Amlak post excerpt","type":"text","formatted_value":""}},"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494.png",1086,598,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494-300x165.png",300,165,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494-768x423.png",768,423,true],"large":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494-1024x564.png",1024,564,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494.png",1086,598,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494.png",1086,598,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494.png",18,10,false],"event-thumbnail":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494-300x200.png",300,200,true],"event-medium":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494-600x400.png",600,400,true],"event-large":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494.png",1086,598,false],"event-hero":["https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/956489494.png",1086,598,false]},"author_info":{"info":["\u0623\u0645\u0644\u0627\u0643 \u0627\u0644\u0631\u064a\u0627\u0636"]},"category_info":"\u062a\u0645\u0648\u064a\u0644 \u0639\u0642\u0627\u0631\u064a<\/a>","tag_info":"\u062a\u0645\u0648\u064a\u0644 \u0639\u0642\u0627\u0631\u064a","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}