The latest market analysis from Zoopla shows housing market activity improving by all key measures during Q1 2024.

Sales activity and house price growth are both up, with the supply of homes for sale a fifth higher than last year.

New sales agreed are 9% higher than a year ago, with 7% more home sales agreed in Q1 2024 against Q1 2023. Zoopla says this is encouraging more sellers to list with 20% more homes for sale compared to this time last year.

With mortgage rates now at 4.4% for a 75% loan to value five year fix rate loan, down by over 1% from June 2023.

The strongest growth in sales is in areas with more affordable prices such as Yorkshire and The Humber (+11%) where the average house price is £185,600 and the North West (+13%) with an average house price of £194,500. 

The strongest growth in new sellers listing homes is in the South West (+28%) and North East (+26%).

The average discount from asking price to agreed purchase price has narrowed from 4.5% last November to 3.9% in March 2024 – the lowest since July 2023.

This equates to a £10,000 discount compared to a £14,250 discount in November.

Zoopla says this is a national trend but discounts are larger in London and the South East, where an average discount is 4.3% or £19,500.

Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla, says: “Rising wages and falling mortgage rates have boosted consumer confidence and this is feeding into improving levels of housing market activity over the first quarter of 2024. House prices are falling at a slower rate but it remains a buyers market where there is much greater choice of homes for sale.

“We don’t believe that house prices are about to increase more quickly but there is more buyer interest. Sellers need to remain realistic on where they set the asking price if they are to take advantage of improving market conditions to secure a sale and move home in 2024.”