Bath property market update – January 2021
The media are making much of the the latest Nationwide figures showing a slight slowdown in prices during December and property pundits have already weighed in to suggest this is the market weakening prior to the end of the Stamp Duty holiday. I would venture to suggest the answer is far simpler. The run up to Christmas generally sees owners removing their properties from marketing as they’d rather not have viewings with the decorations up. Buyers also have other things on their mind at that time of year. December always sees a huge decrease in footfall, portal traffic and suchlike so it is no surprise mortgage approval numbers followed suit.
From our experience, there is no sign of any quietening locally – far from it. Over the past month, we have seen huge competition amongst buyers for the small amount of stock that has come to market. Unfortunately for the buying public, this has resulted in many multiple offer scenarios. The exodus from London continues to inflate local demand.
This is by no means a typical January as we remain in lockdown but standard seasonal trends do still apply. Owners are slow to place their properties on the market so early in the year but buyers get cracking with their searches as soon as New Year comes. This always creates a rather frenetic start to the year. Typically, demand and supply start to even out as Easter approaches but current Covid restrictions may delay this.
I’m afraid to say those wishing to buy in time for the Stamp Duty holiday are now likely to be disappointed. Backlogs with solicitors, surveyors, lenders and search providers would suggest the remaining two months is nowhere near enough time to complete a transaction. You might hope the deadline is extended but I wouldn’t bank on it.
Headlines
- Total supply levels are up 7% year on year
- Asking prices are 6% down year on year (with flats showing the biggest drop at -16%). Selling prices however are significantly up (latest HMLR data from Nov 2020). Adjusted Nationwide figures now show an approx 6.4% increase in property prices across 2020.
- Time on market is between 10% and 17% faster than January 2020 (average vs median)
- There are 30% more flats on the market now than in the same month last year
- There are 206 properties currently on the market that have been “for sale” for more than six months (29.1% of total current stock). Of these, 87 have been on the market for more than a year.
- 22% of currently available properties in Bath are new homes or retirement specific properties
Latest data
Please find below our standard layout data for the Bath property market. Figures in red have been collected on 03/02/21 and compared against our January 2020 archive data in blue. Full figures from 2017 to present day are available on our spreadsheet 2017-21 Bath prop data
Total property on market in Bath
Rightmove – 665 vs 632
Zoopla – 629 vs 564
OnTheMarket – 291 vs 437
Home.co.uk – 707 vs 649
New Instructions in last 14 days
Rightmove – 130 vs 113
Zoopla – 74 vs 80
OnTheMarket – search option not available
Home.co.uk – 73 vs 39
Average Time on Market
Less than 1 month – 18.8% vs 12.4%
Less than 2 months – 30.2% vs 20.8%
More than 1 year – 12.3% vs 10.9%
Selling Time in Bath (last 90 days)
Mean – 117 days vs 160 days
Median – 69 days vs 75 days
Properties for Sale in Bath by Price
Under 200k – 7.7% vs 7%
200k to 300k – 22.9% vs 16.6%
300k to 500k – 35.9% vs 39.7%
500k+ – 33.3% vs 36.5%
Mean Selling Times in Bath by price bracket
100 to 200k – 113 days vs 137 days
200 to 300k – 104 days vs 108 days
300 to 400k – 110 days vs 146 days
400 to 500k – 134 days vs 139 days
500k to 1million – 134 days
1million+ – 101 days
Property on market by Type
Flats – 49.9% vs 41.3%
Terraced – 19.9% vs 21.6%
Semi-detached – 17.7% vs 20.7%
Detached – 12.5% vs 16.4%
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