House selling times double

According to data from Hamptons, analysing Connells Group, it took home sellers an average of 49 days to find a buyer in May 2023, up from 26 days in May 2022, almost double.

This marks the longest non-lockdown wait time since 2013, when the property market was still feeling the effects of the financial crisis.

The data found that four-bedroom houses were the slowest to sell, with 60 days being the average wait time in May, more than double that of the May 2022 of 27 days.

In addition, 200 residential mortgage deals were pulled from the market during the weekend, coinciding with a significant increase in the average rate for a two-year fixed-rate deal. Within a span of less than two weeks, the average rate rose from 5.33% to 5.72%.

Aneisha Beveridge, the head of research at Hamptons, noted that there has been a surge in demand for smaller homes. Buyers have adjusted their expectations and chosen more affordable properties as they downgraded their preferences.

“Upward pressure on mortgage rates over the last two weeks runs the risk of freezing some buyers out of the market,” she said.