Mike Scott, Chief Property Analyst at online estate agent Yopa gives his views on the HMRC property transaction figures in the UK for February.

The latest figures from HMRC for the number of home sales in February confirm the surprising strength of the property market that we saw in the report on mortgages in January. The number of home sales completed was 2.7% higher than the comparable figure for February 2018, and was also higher than the 2015 and 2017 numbers (2016 was distorted by a rush to beat a March deadline for higher rates of stamp duty). These sales will have been agreed in the autumn of 2018 when the Brexit deadline was less pressing, but the positive numbers suggest that any downturn in market activity due to the political uncertainty will be short-lived.

Headline Figures published in February 2019 by HMRC.

• The provisional seasonally adjusted UK property transaction count for February 2019 was 101,780 residential and 10,650 non-residential transactions.

• The provisional seasonally adjusted count of residential property transactions increased by 1.7% between January 2019 and February 2019, and is 2.7% higher than February 2018. 

• The provisional seasonally adjusted count of non-residential property transactions increased by 6.7% between January 2019 and February 2019, and is 2.1% higher than February 2018.

Photo: Mike Scott