The Nationwide has done some fascinating analysis this month on the changes to the proportion of different movers, together with the time each take to move home.
So how many people where you live should be moving at any one time? Is your area more or less active than the average? According to the Nationwide, “We can expect to see around 5% of the total number of homes ‘changing hands’ in the UK. This is a lot less than pre-credit crunch when 8% would shift, but a lot better for most areas than the disastrous year of 2009.”
When you think many people try to buy and sell at the same time, there appears to be a 5% chance somebody will want a property like yours and indeed a 5% chance that the property you are looking for will be available - so it's not a surprise that buying and selling can be stressful, not just because we tend to move for a major life event eg having a baby or getting divorced, but also the chance that the property of our dreams is on the market is so low.
What’s evident in the chart below is how much the first time buyer market has recovered, as have those who buy with cash, whereas the market for mortgage movers and of course those in buy to let is still suffering:-
Source: Nationwide
The second piece of data shows how different groups move at a variety of times. For those who are 25-34 years, they will move every 18 months to two years when renting, two and half to three years when they own with a mortgage, but apparently five years for those who own outright – yes a surprising number of youngsters appear to do so!
At the other end of the scale, those over 65 years will rent on average for nearly 15 years; stay in a mortgaged property for 25 years, but if they own outright, it’s nearly 30 years.
Source: Nationwide
It’s easy to produce data for the sake of it, but this kind of information can really help you to understand how long you may be staying in a property for, or indeed in you have your eye on a particular property/road, you could check out how long people have lived there to see when they may be moving on and plan accordingly.
| Are you in a buyer's or seller's market? - TheAdvisory |
The legals of buying & selling a home - The Society of Licensed Conveyancers |
Your guide to buying at auction - Auction Trade |
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