With the end of the year in sight, it is a good time to look back and think about what the future holds. Then, if you need any help with investments and guaranteed rent in London, you can rely on us.

The most interesting takeaway is that 2024 was great for housing sales recovery. Buyers were back, encouraging sellers to return too. The market was back to life, particularly because mortgage rates were down.

Pipeline

An impressive stat is that there was a wave of activity at the end of 2024. According to data from Zoopla, the pipeline of deals waiting to complete is the biggest it has been since 2020. There are some 283,000 homes with a massive £104bn of value due for completion in the first part of 2025.

One crucial factor here is changes to stamp duty are coming in April 2025. As a result, lots of buyers are trying to complete before 31st March to avoid higher costs. This has meant a lot of activity in the last four weeks in particular.

Prices

The activity means typical estate agents on average had 6.1 sales per month from Jan to November 2024. It was the highest it has been since 2021.

All this means house prices are up across the board, in every region. Northern Ireland was the top performer, gaining 6.8%. Scotland and Wales both had 2.6%. If you are thinking about investing and guaranteed rent in London, keep in mind prices were up 1.4%.

The UK average house price was £267,500 in November, 1.9% up on 2023. Terrace houses had the largest increase, with 2.6% year on year growth. Semi-detached houses were marginally behind at 2.3%. Detached houses had a respectable 1.1%. Flats were lowest, but still gained 0.8%.

All of this is giving plenty of optimism for 2025. Early predictions are we could see prices rise by 2.5% by the end of the year.

Price sensitivity

An important thing to note is that buyers became more sensitive to prices in the last quarter of 2024. This will likely continue through 2025.

It has been a roller coaster for house prices since 2018. Back then, annual house price growth was around 2% and buyers had the power to negotiate discounts. However, massive demand and low supply during the Covid pandemic put the power in the hands of sellers. It meant massive price inflation, reaching 10%, and buyers often having to pay more than the asking price.

We saw the return of a buyers’ market in both 2022 and 2023 because of high mortgage rates. Prices were therefore cooler. But, 2024 was better and house price growth was back. The expectation is buyers will still have the power in 2025.

Choose guaranteed rent in London if you invest

Interestingly, the Zoopla data shows a North/South divide with price inflation. Experts are predicting it will continue in 2025. This means, it is likely that areas in the North will see higher price increases, whereas the South will have slower growth. London has seen the highest levels of price growth since 2010 (83%), so may struggle.

If you do invest in a property in London though, you could earn a healthy income because of high demand. We can help with this and provide the stability of guaranteed rent. It is one of our main areas of expertise. Crucially, we have working agreements with several councils in the city to make it very easy to arrange services.

So, if you want guaranteed rent in London, make us your first choice. We’re cost effective and flexible to suit any needs.