Recession sees property sales tumble

Property sales over £40,000 dropped 44 per cent in the wake of the recession, Social Trends data released by the Office for National Statistics showed.

By The Newsroom

Published 12th Feb 2011, 06:00 BST

Figures in its latest housing analysis, published annually showed that between 2007 and 2008 the number of property sales over £40,000 in Britain fell from 1.6 million to 900,000. There was a further, smaller decrease in the number of transactions between 2008 and 2009 to 859,000 – a fall of 4.4 per cent.

Property transactions across regions in England and Wales between 2007 and 2008 gave a similar picture, declining between 42 per cent and 48 per cent.

According to the ONS collective data, between 2008 and 2009 the number of property transactions continued to fall in six English regions, but rose in three.

The largest decreases in England between 2008 and 2009 were in the North East (13 per cent), North West (11 per cent) and Yorkshire and the Humber (10 per cent).