HMRC’s provisional seasonally adjusted estimate of UK residential transactions in September 2020 is 98,010.
This is slightly down on September 2019 (0.7%) but a 21.3% higher than August 2020.
The provisional seasonally adjusted estimate of UK non-residential transactions in September 2020 is 9,160; 6.3% lower than September 2019 and 18.7% higher than August 2020.
John Phillips, national operations director, Just Mortgages and Spicerhaart, said: “It is a fantastic time to be a mortgage broker. What we’re seeing at Just Mortgages is reflecting the national figures. In fact, we saw record numbers of applications and exchanges in September. Numbers are higher than any of us expected to see and volume is consistently high across the country, surprisingly the South East and London are slightly quieter.
“The one downside has been the lack of lenders offering high LTV mortgages. There are still thousands of clients with 10% deposits who are safe investments and they are currently being blocked from owning a home. The market needs a steady supply of these products to support current applicants. Brokers are not concerned about service level agreements being stretched, delivering for the client is more important, timing is not the issue. If lenders can fix that, we expect the demand to continue for the rest of 2020.”
John Goodall, CEO of specialist buy-to-let lender, Landbay, added: “The market both in buy-to-let and in residential is much more buoyant than any of us expected back in May. September has bounced back strongly and is now exceeding the strong levels of demand that we saw at the start of the year. We are seeing many landlords anticipating an increase in rental demand as it gets harder for people to get on the property ladder due to increasing unemployment and the reduction in high LTV mortgages. I expect this rise in numbers to continue into early 2021 as people rush to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday.”