UK cities facing backlogs based on the current state of the property market

These are the areas facing the biggest property market backlogs

Laura Bond
Authored by Laura Bond
Posted: Friday, November 6, 2020 - 18:09

Home buying platform, Yes Homebuyers, has revealed which UK cities could be facing the biggest backlogs based on the current state of the property market.

The latest figures from the Bank of England show that mortgage approvals hit their highest monthly total since the back end of 2007 last week as buyers continue to swarm the market in search of a stamp duty saving. However, such unprecedented levels of activity have caused huge backlogs with many facing long delays as the industry struggles to cope.  

Yes Homebuyers analysed current property listings across 22 major UK cities looking at the total number of properties listed and what percentage of these were already stuck in the market backlog having accepted an offer or being marked as sold subject to contract.

The research shows that homebuyers in Glasgow could be facing the longest delays when looking to complete on their sale.  Of the 8,654 listings currently on the market across the city, a huge 71% (6,155) have already been marked as sold subject to contract or under offer.

Sheffield ranks second as the city with the most pending transactions at present, as 67% of properties listed in the city have technically sold but are still waiting to complete.  

Across the property market in Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham and Plymouth, between 60% to 65% of homes listed for sale are currently sat in the market no man’s land of under offer or SSTC while they wait to complete.  

Aberdeen is home to the smallest market backlog at present with just 17% of all homes listed for sale currently waiting to complete having accepted an offer. London (33%) and Oxford (44%) are also amongst the cities with the smallest potential market transaction backlogs.

Matthew Cooper, Founder & Managing Director of Yes Homebuyers, commented:

“In current market conditions, many homebuyers and sellers are facing huge delays as the traditional industry struggles to service a huge bottleneck of demand.

As a result, we’re seeing a large number of sales sitting dormant waiting to complete and the areas with the highest levels of homes marked as under offer or sold subject to contract are likely to pose the longest delays.

These delays are starting to spur action from sellers that need to sell in order to secure their ongoing purchase or who have already seen their sale collapse as a result of a protracted selling process.

With the market now functioning really badly, more people are opting for additional routes to selling such as homebuying platforms in order to get around the delays.

In the last two months, we’ve seen a 105% uplift in the number of sellers opting to use the Yes Homebuyer platform for a quick sale when compared to the previous two months, which really demonstrates the toll these delays are taking on the market.” 

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