We closely monitor property sales data on Rightmove to understand the trends that are shaping Edinburgh’s property sales market and to help us and our customers consider what’s ahead.
This time last year the property market ground to a halt when all but essential home moves were prohibited. Unlike last Spring, the housing market in Scotland has remained open over the last few months which has resulted in a different pattern emerging during this national lockdown compared to the first one.
Number of Properties For Sale
Last June when the property market reopened there was a surge of properties added to the sales market. Although there was also much higher buyer activity, the greater supply of new properties on to the market meant the total volume of available properties on the Edinburgh market increased significantly. The volume gradually reduced after the Autumn, moving closer to more normal seasonal levels. During November, December and January there were consistently around 15% more properties on the market than the same time in the previous year. This month however, the number of properties on the market dropped to 5% below March last year.
Number of Completed Sales
The pattern of monthly property sales completed according to Rightmove since late 2019 has been erratic. Unsurprisingly, during Spring 2020 the number of sales completed fell dramatically before bouncing back in June when lockdown 1 was lifted. In March this year, the volume of completed sales for the month were 5% higher than in 2020. We expect the number of sales to remain fairly static into April but then to increase as restrictions continue to ease.
Property prices
According to Zoopla, property prices in Edinburgh rose 3.3 per cent in the year to January 2021 (to an average prince of £240,400). Between November and January, Edinburgh properties sold for an average of 3.5% above Home Report valuation with smaller apartments closer to valuation figure and larger homes and properties with gardens achieving higher premiums above valuation.
Activity to increase but maybe not the surge we saw in 2020
We expect to see an increase in market activity with more new properties coming onto the market but these will be balanced out to an extent by an increased number of successful property sales. If the end of lockdown 1 is anything to go by, we expect we’ll see an upturn in activity taking the market back towards more stable and predictable levels as the year goes on.