Stalling house prices and shift back to office working are affecting people’s ability to move out of city, say experts
Stalling house prices and shift back to office working are affecting people’s ability to move out of city, say experts
Londoners are buying the lowest share of houses outside the capital in more than a decade as their moving plans are curtailed by a stalling local market and the shift back to office working.
They were behind just 5.3% of house purchases elsewhere in the country in the first seven months of this year, the lowest proportion since 2013, research has found.
The number of transactions – 31,620 up to the end of July – is about half the 63,600 in the same period in 2021 at the height of the Covid pandemic-driven “race for space”, according to an analysis of data from Countrywide estate agents.
“The return to the office has played a role in curbing the appetite for long-distance moves, but it’s the lack of price growth in the capital that’s really clipped the wings of would-be leavers,” said Aneisha Beveridge, the head of research at the real estate company Hamptons, which carried out the analysis.
