2.6% of Britain’s entire property market moved home in the past 12 months despite lockdown restrictions and the wider problems caused by the pandemic
New market insight by estate agent Keller Williams UK has revealed Britain’s home moving hotspots in the past year.
The research analysed the number of homes sold across England, Wales and Scotland over the past year and its percentage with relation to the total residential housing stock.
Nearly 800,000 home moves have taken place in the past 12 months, meaning 2.6% of Britain’s entire property market moved home despite lockdown restrictions and the wider problems caused by the pandemic.
The research showed that Scotland moves the most, with 81,751 transactions in the past year, equating to 3.1% of all homes in the country.
Scotland accounts for seven of the top 15 home moving hotspots at a local authority level, with 4.1% of all homes in East Lothian hitting the market in the past year.
Midlothian (3.9%), East Renfrewshire (3.7%), South Lanarkshire (3.7%) and Renfrewshire (3.5%) were also among some of Britain’s most prominent home mover hotspots.
In England, 2.6% of all households made a property move over the past year, with the South West (2.9%), the South East (2.8%) and East Midlands (2.8%) ranking top.
Harborough in Leicestershire tops the table at local authority level, with 1,477 transactions completed in the last year resulting in 3.7% of the total property market moving in the area.
South Derbyshire (3.6%), North West Leicestershire (3.5%), Central Bedfordshire (3.4%) and Bracknell Forest (3.4%) also moved the most across England.
In Wales, 2.3% of the total property market decided to move last year, with Vale of Glamorgan seeing this figure increase to 3%, the highest in Wales.
Ben Taylor, chief executive of Keller Williams UK, said: Although 2.6% of households choosing to move doesn’t sound high, it’s important to remember this is in relation to 28.5 million total homes across Britain and against a backdrop of pandemic uncertainty and lockdown restrictions.
In this context, nearly 800,000 successful home moves is pretty impressive, and the fact we’ve managed it while also juggling the strange new normal of lockdown life is pretty commendable, Taylor said.
Taylor said that of course, the dangling carrot of a stamp duty saving would have helped boost these figures. With a potential deadline extension on the way, we should see the number of us selling up and moving on remain high.