Search Acumen have published their first quarter edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker and is shows that the activity levels within the conveyancing market has altered very little since the fourth quarter of last year. So far in 2017 the volumes of conveyancing stand at 245,738 for the first quarter. In the final quarter of 2016 these levels stood at 245,275, indicating there has been very little improvement.
At the beginning of 2016 there were unparalleled activity levels. However, since the high figures at the start of the year, there has been a year on year drop of 11% in conveyancing activity. In February 2017 the sector saw a worsening in the levels of activity, where the market figures dropped to their lowest levels since April 2014. Because of these low levels of activity in February, it is thought that the market was kept buoyant by the figures in January and March. In these months there was 84,274 and 91,676 conveyancing transactions respectively. During this first quarter and including the dip in figures in February there has been an increase in volume of 0.2%, which considering the skydiving results from February doesn’t seem too bad. However, the little improvement in the figures has reflected the static or flat lined trend of conveyancing. With the slowing of the property market, this stasis is demonstrated across the entire of the property market. The property market is starting to slow as house price growth is reduced and the volume of transactions stabilizes.
Despite the lack of increase in the conveyancing volumes, there still remains a great deal of competition within the market. Information found by the Land Registry and collated in to the Conveyancing Market Tracker shows that competition in the conveyancing market has stayed at a healthy level throughout the first quarter of the year.
