Property Update 2025/2026
New Year, New Optimism?
First of all, a Happy New Year to you all and let us hope that 2026 is slightly kinder than 2025 was to the property market. Interestingly, I was looking through what I said this time last year when I was reviewing and previewing the market and it appears my comments were surprisingly accurate! However, even the most optimistic amongst us will probably want to put 2025 behind us but as a firm, having looked at the number of transactions that we carried out, we saw an increase on the previous year. Nationally, I read that property transactions were 23% down on the previous year, so we must have done something right! House prices undoubtedly dropped as well.
It is important not to be a grumpy old man, but my frustrations with other agents being overly optimistic, some may call it something different, and the general unproductivity from solicitors did not help the market. On the latter all agents will agree.
There are a number of good buyers out there, but they are only going to pay what is the right price today. 2025 was a buyers’ market. If everybody was realistic and not as a few are, blinded by optimism, we would have a far more active market. Be in the market and not on it.
On a national basis, it is interesting to see the pressure the London market has been under and many people that I speak to who operate in this market say that prices are back to 2017 levels. We need a stronger London market.
As I touched on earlier, the whole legal process in selling, is becoming completely bogged down and transactions are taking far longer than they should. We really do need to overhaul the system and personally I have always been in favour of Property Information Packs.
Farmland has definitely been affected by the changes in IHT and I fear we will see, over the next few years, a number of small farms coming on to the market. Values for farmland are becoming much more varied with the higher prices inevitably being paid by an adjoining neighbour.
The planning system appears to be grinding to a halt and even for the most basic planning consent, it can well be over a year before you get a response. All madness. Talking about planning, there have been one or two development sites where builders have stopped construction on the basis, they cannot sell for what it is now costing to build. This is very worrying.
In this booklet you will see a wide range of properties that we have transacted on in 2025. We sold a number of houses without coming to the market, and it is important that if you are interested in buying that you do register with us.
Looking forward to 2026, I am confident that we will see many more transactions, as all those people who have been sitting on the fence, leading up to the budget, will now want to get on with their lives. There is no doubt about it that the middle market was the most robust in 2025 and I think will be even more so during 2026. I am nervous that the top end of the market people’s habits and the cost of running such houses will keep a ceiling on prices. The ‘Mansion Tax’ will not help. Buyers will also continue to favour houses that don’t require major work.
I am more optimistic for 2026 than I was for 2025, but realism is the key word. Fingers crossed for a cut in interest rates.