Press Round Up May 2025

Tue 24 Jun 2025

The housing market is proving tricky in some areas, with people struggling to sell their homes, particularly flats. Jeremy Leaf, principal of Jeremy Leaf & Co, told The I Paper: “When it comes to flats, concerns about the existing and future direction of travel for service charges, especially in blocks with cladding, is increasing nervousness about taking on such properties. As well as this, there is also the potential for disputes with neighbours and worries about when leaseholders can extend leases and at what cost. There may also be concerns around the running of the building, particularly if there is a difficult management company in situ."

House prices rose in April, according to Halifax, with values rising by 0.3 per cent following a 0.5 per cent drop in March. Jeremy Leaf told City AM: “The market is baring its teeth. Activity has been supported by strong employment, steady inflation and the southerly direction of travel for mortgage rates, even if cuts are made later rather than sooner than anticipated.”

The slightly more dated house-price data from the Land Registry revealed that prices soared in March as buyers rushed to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday. Jeremy Leaf told The Standard that some potential buyers and sellers are “sitting on their hands”: “The recent cut in mortgage rates has restored some confidence but April’s sharp rise in inflation will not help.“ He explained further in Forbes: “At first glance, the ONS figures demonstrate market resilience with activity shrugging off recent economic uncertainties at home and abroad. However, on the ground, we are seeing a different story. Although this is the most comprehensive of all the housing market surveys, as it includes mortgaged and cash transactions, these numbers reflect activity and pricing over the past few months."

There was further evidence that the end of the stamp duty holiday caused a slowdown in the market with HMRC reporting that the number of residential transactions in April was 28 per cent lower than April 2024 and 64 per cent lower than March 2025. Jeremy Leaf told City AM: that the data “does not tell the whole story: “On the ground, the significant number of purchases brought forward [due to the stamp duty deadline] means there have been fewer deals since then but little evidence of widespread renegotiation or withdrawals despite rising stock levels and uncertainty about the pace of mortgage payment reductions.”

Mortgage approvals for house purchases fell in March to 64,309 – down from 65,093 in February, according to the Bank of England. Jeremy Leaf told Estate Agent Today: “Mortgage approvals always set the tone for housing market activity over the next few months at least but these figures are particularly interesting as they reflect the period when it almost certainly became impossible to take advantage of the stamp duty concession. Although the sharp increase in net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals shows that so many transactions were brought forward, it is also clear that buying and selling remained fairly robust despite continuing concerns. These included not only the loss of the stamps duty discount but the pace of likely base rate reductions, as well as economic uncertainty both here and abroad.”

The Bank of England cut base rate by a quarter point to 4.25 per cent at its May meeting. Jeremy Leaf told The Negotiator: “With so much media speculation over the past few weeks, and the need to boost economic growth because of the talk surrounding tariffs, any cut to base rate today has already been largely factored in by homebuyers. Nevertheless the reduction will serve as a welcome shot in the arm to activity which has been flagging lately since the stamp duty concession was removed at the end of March.”