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All but two areas of property market see buyer activity levels trending upwards

Research by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has shown that, over the last year, all but two counties in England have seen the number of buyers entering the market trend upwards, as greater market stability and improvements to mortgage affordability have helped boost buyer appetites.

Benham and Reeves analysed property sale listings, looking at the number of homes to have secured a buyer (sold subject to contract) across each county in England and the average quarterly change in buyer activity seen since Q1 of last year.

LIS Show – MPU

The research shows that between Q1 2024 and Q1 of this year, the number of homes securing a buyer across England has increased at an average quarterly rate of 3.7% per quarter.

The largest uplift in buyer market activity has been seen across Lincolnshire, where the number of homes securing a buyer has increased at an average rate of 6% per quarter since Q1 of last year.

Cumbria has seen the second largest increase in buyer activity with an average quarterly increase of 5.9% in the number of homes marked as sold subject to contract, with Rutland placing third at 5.5%.

Cheshire (+5.4%), Worcestershire (+5.1%), Essex (+5%), Oxfordshire (+5%), East Riding of Yorkshire (+4.9%), Leicestershire (+4.9%) and Warwickshire (+4.9%) have also seen some of the largest average quarterly growth in buyer levels.

However, this positive trend is one that has been observed almost across the board, with just two counties seeing a decline.

Across the City of London, the number of homes finding a buyer has declined at an average quarterly rate of -6.2% since Q1 2024, with Gloucestershire also seeing a reduction of -2.9% a quarter on average.

In contrast to the City of London, Greater London has seen healthy growth, with buyer activity increasing by 3.6% per quarter on average.

Data tables and sources

  • For sales listing data sourced from Rightmove and based on the number of listings marked as sold subject to contract at the end of each respective quarter.
  • Average quarterly change based on an average of the quarterly change seen each quarter across each location between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025.
  • Full data tables and sources can be viewed online, here.
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