TwentyCi Reveals Housing Emergency for Renters as Shifting Market Means Homes for Buyers, but Not for Tenants

According to the newly released End of Year 2022 Property & Homemovers Report from property and data insight specialist, TwentyCi there are now homes to buy, but people will struggle to rent. The availability of stock within the Owner-Occupied market is now back to a pre-pandemic norm, but the reverse is true for the lettings market.

The figures reveal a five per cent increase in New Instructions to the Owner-Occupied market in 2022 and a 14 per cent drop in Sales Agreed which together have resulted in a significant easing of stock available across all regions of the UK. Most areas now have five months or more of supply, which is more than double the levels in some regions during 2021. This is far closer to the number of houses available for sale back in 2019 prior to the onslaught of COVID-19. Inner London and Wales have the most available stock with over six months, whilst Scotland and the Northeast currently have the least at around four and a half months of stock each. Despite this easing of the supply squeeze, house prices have remained buoyant, 8.4 per cent higher than in 2019, but down from the peak recorded in Q2 2022.

In contrast, new instructions within the lettings market are down by almost eight per cent compared to 2021 and by over 25 per cent since 2019. Landlords are rapidly withdrawing from the market as tax, regulatory and cost environments have become less favourable. Apart from Inner London, which currently has four and a half months of lettings property stock on the books, all regions sit between 1.5 and three months of rental homes available. Renters in Scotland and Northern Ireland are in the most precarious situation. Lack of supply is further compounded on the demand side as tenants are deferring decisions to buy because of the cost-of-living crisis. This pressure has resulted in average monthly asking price reaching £1652, an increase of £200 since 2021 and almost £300 since the ?norm' of 2019.

Other key findings from the report include:

1. Owner-occupied sales: There were 1.2 million sales transactions within the owner-occupier market in 2022. This is a fall of 14.3 per cent since 2021, but in line with 2019. This is far from a freefall that many predicted. With the supply of houses coming onto the market now back to normal levels downward pressure on prices will continue and a similar number of transactions are expected in the coming year
2. Homemover Wave: As of January 2023, there are currently 1.36 million household progressing through the owner-occupier home moving journey with 308,699 households actively wanting to move through to 270,216 households settling into their properties. This represents a significant opportunity for the economy as homemovers have been identified as one of the most valuable groups for businesses. This is particularly true during the current cost-of-living crisis when other key consumer groups are tightening their purse strings, whilst homemovers will be actively spending money on transforming their new homes.
3. Online agents and the High Street: The market share of Hybrid/ Online Agents overall was 7.3 per cent in 2022, down from the peak of 8.2 in 2019. Share of market is just 1.1 per cent in properties being sold for £1m or more and 5.3 per cent for homes within the £350k-£1m bracket. Entering into a market where achieving a sale will be more challenging it remains to be seen what will happen to market share in 2023.

Colin Bradshaw, Managing Director, TwentyCi comments:

"2022 was a turbulent year when the widely anticipated housing market re-calibration began to take effect. We've seen some key shifts; most markedly in the stock situations for both the owner-occupied and lettings markets. With the cost-of-living crisis continuing to deepen, 2023 looks set to be another fast-changing year and it will be important to keep on top of market trends."

ENDS

Notes for editors

TwentyCi is an information and marketing services company that provides UK residential property data, analytics & insight for marketing and other key strategic purposes. Our experience and client portfolio encompasses multiple sectors and categories, including property and estate agency groups, retailers, financial services, automotive and utilities.

Holding the UK's largest and richest resource of factual homemover data compiled from more than 29 billion qualified data points, TwentyCi works with advertisers and their agencies to create contextually targeted marketing programmes that cut through by reaching consumers at the exact moment that they need a company's product or service, through the best media channel for that individual.