The growth trajectory of the number of house sales has come to an end, after decreasing by 2.5% in 2019 compared to 2018. Despite the registration of 503,875 transactions, last year saw the first reduction in five years, according to data from the College of Registrars.
In terms of the highlights from last year, when the market was already showing signs of fatigue even before the coronavirus outbreak, the slight predominance of new build homes stands out. 90,690 new build sales were closed in 2019, representing a slight rise of 0.6%. By contrast, the sale of second-hand homes fell by 3.1% last year to 413,185 operations.
The other key feature of the year, according to the property registrars, was that a new record was made for the average homeownership period: 15 years and 3 months in 2019, which comfortably doubles the figure from 2009.
