My interview on BBC Radio – The UK’s Secret Property Market

This month Jessica and our research team investigated off-market property sales in the UK for 2021, to understand the scale of the so called ‘Secret Market’ and BBC Radio picked up on our data and decided to quiz me. My full interview can be found below.

When we think of secret property sales, we think of ultra high net worths completing on prime London mega mansions without wanting to draw attention to their latest acquisition. But this sort of market activity actually accounts for a very small percentage of off-market property transactions.

In fact, many off-market sales are simply homes in areas with overwhelming levels of buyer demand, where stock is sold subject to contract before a for sale board is even erected.

In these instances, agents will have a long waiting list of prospective buyers who are desperate to live within a certain postcode or development, so they needn’t waste the money required to market a home on the open market.

While this is a common practice, it’s certainly been turbocharged as a result of the pandemic property market boom, with buyers falling over themselves to secure what little for sale stock was available while mortgage rates remained very favourable.

As a result, last year saw the third largest level of off-market sales in the last decade, but with house prices also heightened due to such high demand, the overall contribution these transactions made to total market value was by far the highest it has been in the last 10 years.

As always, at your service, and the Beebs service!

Iain Crawford, CEO