Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen [1], comments:
“While residential property transactions remained relatively flat in February 2019, the number of monthly seasonally adjusted transactions has only been bettered once since the EU Referendum in 2016.
“And the non-residential sector also tells a promising story: over the past month, seasonally adjusted transactions picked up by 6.7%, making February 2019 one of the strongest performing months in recent memory, bettered only once in more than a year.
“This is encouraging. But while everyone is holding their breath on the UK’s future relationship to the EU, the Government must continue to focus its efforts closer to home to continue to improve the property transaction process where possible.
“The Chancellor’s comments in the Spring Statement around planning reform earlier this month were a promising step in the right direction. Often we hear of planning applications that are taking far too long to reach a decision within local systems mired in inefficiency and bureaucracy.
“Our property market continues to perform in the face of troubling political times. If we are able to lift some of the administrative hurdles we have created for ourselves, we could likely see continued uptick in activity across the sector.”