With the New Year celebrations behind us, the housing market is looking ahead to the coming year and what is in store. 2024 ended with the usual festive lull, but activity was still substantially stronger than in 2023 – paving the way for a strong start to 2025. Read December’s insights from Rightmove and Zoopla below and find out more about the housing market in West Wales. 

In Brief

Nationally the market has seen – 

• New seller asking prices dropped by a seasonal 1.7% (-£6,395) this month to £360,197, in line with the usual December monthly fall, with sellers’ pricing power diminishing as Christmas approaches¹.
• Prices end the year 1.4% above December 2023, and Rightmove predicts that new seller asking prices will rise by 4% in 2025.
• Despite the festive lull, activity remains substantially stronger than the same period a year ago, with the number of sales being agreed up by 22%, and new buyer demand up by 13%¹.
• With the looming stamp-duty change in England on 31 March 2025, sellers of smaller properties in higher-priced areas are trying to beat the deadline to avoid higher tax. Prices are holding up best in the first-time-buyer sector, especially homes priced below the £300,000 threshold
• Zoopla says that there has been a sustained recovery in housing sales over 2024. They say there is the largest pipeline of sales working to completion for 4 years: 283,000 sales worth £104bn, up 30% on a year ago ².
• UK house price inflation now stands at +1.9%, compared to -1.2% a year ago ².
• Buyers have become more price-sensitive in Q4 2024, paying less of the asking price in the wake of the Autumn Budget ².
• The North-South divide in house price growth is set to remain over 2025 ².
• Zoopla also predicts a continued recovery in sales volumes to 1.15m in 2025, with modest house price inflation of 2.5% ².

In terms of the Welsh property market –

• The average house price in Wales is now £258,487, down 0.6% over the last month, but up 2.9% year on year¹.
• The average number of days for a Welsh property to be on the market before a sale is agreed has increased to 78¹.

¹Source – Rightmove

²Source – Zoopla

National Overview

Each month we bring you the latest insights on the national property market and how it is evolving, looking at two of the biggest names – Rightmove and Zoopla.  

Nationally Rightmove is reporting that December has seen the usual seasonal lull, with the average price of property coming onto the market falling by 1.7% this month to £360,197. In a buyer’s market, it says that in December new sellers had to come to the market with some of the most competitive prices of the year, to attract buyers who were focused on the festive season. 

But while the market has shown its traditional slow down in the run up to Christmas, Rightmove says that activity remains strong compared to last year and prices have risen by 1.4% compared with this time in 2023.

Rightmove adds that challenges remain for the 2025 property market, particularly with the stamp-duty deadline in England on 31 March. It is seeing signs that those facing higher stamp duty charges are trying to act fast to avoid them. Overall, in 2025 it predicts that new seller asking prices will rise by a further 4%, aided by anticipated mortgage rate falls.

Zoopla reports that property prices are now at +1.9% inflation compared to a year ago, with the average UK house price set to rise by 2.5% by the end of 2025. 

It says that both buyers and sellers have returned to the housing market in larger numbers through 2024, partly as they had delayed decisions about moving house due to higher mortgage rates. A combination of more homes for sale and lower mortgage rates has been behind a sustained growth in new sales through 2024. As a result the end-of-year sales pipeline is at its highest for four years.

While this is positive for the number of home moves, it hasn’t resulted in faster house price inflation due to affordability constraining buying power. Zoopla says its data shows buyers have become more price-sensitive in the final months of the year due to uncertainty over mortgage rates in 2025 and nervousness over the impact of the Budget.

Zoopla adds that it will remain a buyer’s market in 2025, but they expect there to be sufficient house price inflation to support more home moves.

Regional Insight from Cardigan Bay Properties

We specialise in the property market in West Wales and monitor developments here throughout the year to give you the best, most accurate advice. We cover the key regions of Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, and this month one of our founders – Tania Dutnell – outlines the key trends we’ve seen through December 2024. If you’d like to find out more please get in touch. 

The December 2024 market has been mixed in terms of the activity we have seen. Looking at the number of valuations we completed it was slightly less than in December 2023, but we had more properties coming onto the market – up nearly 30% on the 2023 figure. Similarly, while we had less viewings booked in 2024 – down just over 10% –  we had a lot more sales agreed – up 200% from 2023 to 2024.

What does this mean? The buyers viewing our properties are more serious about buying the right property – they’re not simply viewing everything out there, but are considering what they really want from their next home and are carefully choosing what they view so that they are then comfortable to make an offer on it. 

As a result, December 2024 was a very positive month for us and the regions we work in and this is continuing into January 2025, which has already been busy. There is still a lot of choice for buyers and with the mortgage rates remaining favourable we expect the number of sales to continue to be strong throughout 2025.

Your Regional Insights

Here we give you an overview of the latest House Price Index results for our key regions – Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. Please note, that each month these figures are two to three months behind due to the Land Registry taking longer to register new sales, so this report includes sales up to the end of October 2024.

To help you follow the trends for these regions, the graphs below show figures from July 2019 (pre-Covid pandemic) to October 2024.

CEREDIGION

In October 2024 the average property price in Ceredigion increased slightly to £251,559 (up from £251,176 in September 2024). This growth is reflected across all of the different property types, with detached properties at £317,280 (up from £316,605); semi-detached properties at £212,542 (up from £212,433); terraced properties at £188,288 (up from £188,204) and flats at £122,984 (up from £122,177).

In terms of the yearly percentage change, overall Ceredigion properties were down 1.7%, with the biggest drop being seen for detached properties, which fell 2.8%, followed by flats which fell 1.6%.

The monthly percentage change shows a very slight increase though – overall up 0.2% – with flats showing the highest monthly increase – up 0.7%.

View the full Ceredigion report.

PEMBROKESHIRE

October 2024 saw another month of growth for the region of Pembrokeshire. Overall the average house price here was up from £237,444 in September 2024 to £240,211 in October 2024. All property types experienced an increase – the average price of a detached property increased from £323,614 in September 2024 to £327,477 in October 2024; semi-detached properties increased from £212,030 to £214,127; terraced properties increased from £181,255 to £183,409; and flats increased from £119,881 to £121,775.

In terms of the yearly percentage change in the region, October 2024 showed an overall growth of 1%, with semi-detached properties showing the biggest increase – they were up 2.4%. Detached properties however showed a slight – 0,3% – decline in prices.

When looking at the monthly percentage change, overall the region showed a 1.2% increase in October 2024, with flats showing the strongest increase – up 1.6%.

View the full Pembrokeshire report.

CARMARTHENSHIRE

October 2024 saw strong growth in the property market in Carmarthenshire. Overall the average property price increased from £199,741 in September 2024 to £206,669. All property types experienced this surge – average detached property prices increased from £264,700 to £274,214; semi-detached prices increased from £177,223 to £183,047; terraced prices increased from £146,835 to £151,977; and flats increased from £117,746 to £122,278.

Looking at the yearly percentage change, overall property prices in Carmarthenshire increased by 2%, with the biggest growth shown by terraced properties (up 3%) and semi-detached properties (up 2.7%).

The monthly percentage change is also very positive – overall property prices increased by 3.5% this month. The biggest increase was seen by flats – up 3.8%, followed by detached properties (up 3.6%), then terraced properties (up 3.5%) and semi-detached properties (up 3.3%).

View the full Carmarthenshire report.

CURRENT UK HOUSE PRICE INDEX

* As of October 2024, the average house price in the UK is £292,059, and the index stands at 153.2. Property prices have risen by 0.2% compared to the previous month, and risen by 3.4% compared to the previous year.

*Details provided by the Land Registry. For more information on the House Price Index please CLICK HERE

Please note that the stats provided by the UK House Price Index are live and constantly evolving.