The housing market is off to a strong start in 2025 according to Zoopla, with sales agreed up 12 per cent year-on-year as buyers seek to swerve April’s stamp duty increase.
More buyers are also out house hunting, the property website suggested, with enquiries made about homes 13 per cent higher compared to this time last year.
The number of homes for sale is also 10 per cent higher than a year ago.
Zoopla’s latest house price figure, which runs to the end of December 2024, shows a 2 per cent rise across the year. This was the fastest growth rate since April 2023.
The average UK house price is currently £267,700, having increased £5,200 over 2024. This marked an improvement on the £2,400 decline in the average house price in 2023.
Zoopla is forecasting house prices to rise by 2.5 per cent this year.
Warming up? Rising sales led house prices to rise 2% in the year to December 2024
Where are house prices rising most?
The fastest growth in average house prices over the past 12 months was in Northern Ireland, which has seen the typical home go up by 7.7 per cent.
North West England is the next strongest UK region with prices rising 3.2 per cent over the past year.
At a city and town level, prices are rising fastest in Wigan in Greater Manchester at 5.6 per cent and Motherwell in Scotland, up 4.9 per cent.
As has been the story for some time, house prices are rising more slowly in southern England.
House prices have risen by less than 1.5 per cent in London, the South West, South East and Eastern regions of England over the last 12 months.
Malcolm Prescott, managing director of Webbers Estate Agents which has offices in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset says things are looking up in 2025.
‘Fundamentally the property market thrives on confidence and positive sentiment’, he said.
‘People are hearing that prices are set to rise, albeit marginally, and affordability seems to be back given the more consistent mortgage interest rates.
‘January has started very positively here in the South West, with an abundance of new listings and sales to match.’
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What is the stamp duty change?
The removal of stamp duty relief from April 2025 has boosted first-time buyer demand by over a third in some property price bands, according to Zoopla.
First-time buyers currently pay stamp duty if their home costs more than £425,000. But from 1 April this will drop to £300,000.
This means instead of paying no stamp duty on a purchase worth £425,000, they will soon pay £6,205.
Home movers will also be impacted. They currently pay stamp duty if their home costs more than £250,000.
From 1 April this will drop back to £125,000, with the maximum extra charge for home movers missing the deadline at £2,500.
It is unlikely someone house hunting now would be able to complete by the April deadline, though those already in the process will be rushing to exchange and complete.
Toby Leek, president of the estate agent membership body, Propertymark, said: ‘The stamp duty changes due to commence in England and Northern Ireland from April are having the expected effect of high activity due to many people wanting to save themselves potentially thousands on their next home move.’
Some fear that property market activity will tail off after April.
However, Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla, believes it will continue into the later part of the year.
‘This year has started well, better than 2024 and 2023 which bodes well for market activity over the rest of the year, supported by evidence of more people looking to move,’ he said.
‘It is important not to read too much into the increase in stamp duty for more buyers from April, as three in five first-time buyers will still pay nothing.
‘The extra costs to homeowners remain manageable and unlikely to reduce sales but they will keep price rises in check.’
There are other reasons driving the busy start to the year, according to a Zoopla survey.
It found that the appetite to move home now or in the next two years is greater than a year ago, with 22 per cent of renters and 17 per cent of homeowners looking to buy
Just under a fifth of homeowners want to move in the next two years while a quarter have no immediate plans to move and are keeping a close watch on the market should circumstances change.
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