The UK housing market remained ‘surprisingly buoyant’ last month with only a marginal decline in the volume of homes changing hands, fresh data has revealed.

Despite the traditional slowdown in activity as we head towards the Christmas period, the latest figures from the Agency Express Property Activity Index show that new listings ‘for sale’ were down by just 4.7% month-on-month, compared to a fall of 12.2% in the corresponding month last year.

Meanwhile, homes ‘sold’ dropped by only 1.8% last month – a major improvement on the 14.7% decline recorded in November 2015.

Looking at regional activity across the rest of the UK, 11 of the 12 regions recorded by the Property Activity Index reported growth in both the number of properties ‘sold’ and new listings ‘for sale’.

This month’s top performing region was East Anglia. Figures for new listings sat at 0.4% and properties sold at 2.4%, marking a record best November for the region. 

The regions recording the largest month-on-month increases included:

Properties ‘Sold’

North East 24.3%

Scotland 6.9%

New listings ‘For Sale’

Central England 11.3%

South East 5.9%

London 0.6%

The only region to record a month-on-month decline in November’s Property Activity Index was Wales. New listings ‘for sale’ fell by 14.8% and properties sold’ dropped 3.2%, although the decline in figures for properties ‘sold’ was far less than those recorded in 2015, when it depreciated by 11.8%.

Commenting on the latest index results, Stephen Watson, managing director of Agency Express, said: “A surprisingly buoyant month for November; month on month figures have reported positively across the nation and year on year activity has also increased.

“It will be interesting to see if the change in trend will have a positive effect on the forth coming weeks where we traditionally witness a slowdown in the property market until January.”