One in nine properties sold for more than asking price in February

There was a notable increase in the proportion of properties achieving more than their original asking price in February, according to NAEA Propertymark.

One in nine properties sold for more than their asking price last month, which was the highest share since August 2020.

At 11%, the share of properties achieving more than their listing price was the highest share recorded in the month of February for five years, the estate agency trade body found.

The data also shows that 57% of properties sold for less than the original asking price, while the proportion of sales made to first-time buyers increased to 25% in February, from 23% in January.

This is the highest figure recorded since July 2020 and was up from 22% in February 2020.

In February, the average number of prospective buyers registered per estate agent branch stood at 388, a 20% fall from 487 in January. But this is the highest figure recorded for the month of February since 2017, when the figure stood at 425.

The number of transactions taking over 17 weeks from the offer being accepted to exchanging contracts, increased again to 27% from 26% last month – the highest figure on record.

The average number of sales agreed per estate agent branch stood at 11 last month, up from 10 a month earlier.

Year-on-year, this figure is up from nine sales agreed per estate agent branch in February 2020 and seven sales agreed per estate agent branch in February 2019.

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