Despite any common preconceptions, the UK property market is currently showing no sign of slowing down towards Christmas. It seems instead that the opposite is true, and avid investor Aaron B. David says he is experiencing the market speeding up through a drive and desire for more space. Leading UK property resource Zoopla has shown that the top 20 fastest-moving property markets are all presently in the UK.
Eight of these markets are in the East and West Midlands, boosted by towns within a 40-minute radius of Birmingham such as Redditch, ranking seventh place. Properties here are on the market for 27 days on average before being sold subject to contract. Similarly ranked is the town of Stoke-on-Trent, taking an average of 28 days, the same as Bromsgrove and Walsall. Further East in Nottinghamshire, the small village of Gedling comes up in 16th place, being on the market for an average of 31 days.
Moving down south the story is slightly different, with properties on average taking longer to sell compared to the Midlands. Only three local authorities rank within the top 20, driven by Waltham Forest in East London as the exception, taking on average just 24 days to come off the market.
As is typically of steep London house prices, the fastest moving price band here is £400,000-£450,000. This figure is distinctly higher than any other local authority which has made it to the list. Located in a borough best known as a 2012 London Olympics host, Waltham Forest has had a boom driven by Londoners wanting to make it onto the property ladder somewhere convenient yet affordable and Aaron B. David has noticed this is becoming more apparent with every year that goes by.
Moving further out of London, only two local authorities from the South are on the coveted list, namely Bristol in the South West and Dartford in the South East. Bristol ranked in 12th place, with properties taking 29 days on average to sell.
Bristol is regularly labelled as one of the best areas to live in the UK, and is a more affordable option than London, with the fastest moving price band being £150,000-£250,000.
Dartford is a close 13th place with properties taking 30 days on average to sell, although with a slightly higher price band at £250,000-£300,000, likely reflected by its excellent transportation links to London.
Looking at the overall picture, the fastest moving property type is a three-bed semi-detached house which is top in 12 of the 20 areas. The most popular price band is £100,000-£150,000, which has made it to the top spot in 11 local authorities. Self-made multi-millionaire and property investor Aaron B. David urges buyers to act quickly when searching for their dream property, "any hold-up could result in buyers not just missing out on their perfect property, but potentially losing their money".
The security of this market remains stable amid the chaos of the pandemic, which going forward should help to generate confidence in the property market towards the end of 2020.
