House sales continue to slide, with the number of property transactions in April 12.5% lower than the previous month, according to the latest statistics from HMRC, putting pressure on the tax take from stamp duty land tax (SDLT)
HMRC’s data for April 2018 shows the number of non-adjusted residential transactions was 12.5% lower than in March, and 2% lower than April 2017.
In total there were 86,200 residential property transactions in the UK in April, compared to 98,480 the previous month, using the non-adjusted figures. As well as a drop of 12.5% in transactions compared with March, this figure is also 2% lower than in April 2017.
The data indicates that for every month of the first quarter of 2018, the figure has been below 100,000 transactions. This contrasts with the second half of 2017, when transactions for each month ranged between 118,000 to 106,000.
However, HMRC’s seasonally-adjusted figures paint a slightly different trend with the number of residential property transactions edging up by 3.5% between March and April this year. Nonetheless the April figure of 100,190 is below the total for the same month last year, which was 102,940.
The regional breakdown indicates that transactions in Northern Ireland were down 17.1% on a monthly basis to 1,880, while England saw a 13.6% drop to 72,500 and Wales was down 12% to 3,930.
Scotland was the only region of the UK to see an increase between March and April, up 1.9% on a monthly basis to 7,890.
UK Property Transaction Statistics are here.
Report by Pat Sweet
