Why is the housing market so sluggish?

Is this the first sign of a bounce in the housing market? Property website Rightmove is reporting this morning that enquiries to estate agents so far this month are 19 per cent on August last year. This follows a quarter-point cut in interest rates by the Bank of England (BoE). 

Rightmove’s data is forward-looking, in that it represents the first step in the house-buying process: contacting an estate agent for information, or for a viewing. Then again, enquiries are only enquiries – it is a big step from there to securing a mortgage and making an offer, and an even bigger step actually to completing a purchase. The government’s data for completed sales tells a rather different story. In June, there were 91,370 completions, up 8 per cent on June 2023 but representing a modest fall on May 2023 – indeed, it was the first fall in seasonally adjusted sales since last autumn.