Gross sales velocity up, completions climb – this 12 months’s standout property tendencies revealed

With the residential property market on observe to finish the 12 months with 1.15 million gross sales completions – a 4.5% enhance on 2024 – Zoopla has highlighted the important thing shopper tendencies and purchaser behaviours that formed the previous 12 months.

In keeping with the property portal, January was the busiest month for platform visits, a sample it says displays the so-called “Boxing Day Bounce” on 26 December and the standard surge in New Yr property searches as individuals start planning strikes for the 12 months forward.

Might emerged as the preferred month to record a house on the market on Zoopla, with many households utilizing the spring interval to determine their subsequent property earlier than bringing their very own to market. In the meantime, HMRC knowledge exhibits that March was the busiest month for completions, recording 178,000 transactions valued at £40,000 or extra throughout the UK.

The common time to promote in 2025 was 38 days, up from 35 days in 2024, with three-bedroom terraced properties the preferred property sort, accounting for 18% of purchaser enquiries.

In keeping with Zoopla, Falkirk stays the fastest-moving property market within the UK, with a median time to promote of simply 13 days. It’s joined by West Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire, and East Ayrshire, all recording the identical speedy turnaround. Notably, the entire high ten fastest-moving markets are in Scotland, the place properties are sometimes listed with a valuation and survey accomplished upfront, serving to to facilitate faster gross sales agreements.

Sunderland was the fastest-moving market in England and Wales, with a median time to promote of 23 days. It’s joined by Bedford, Knowsley, and Carlisle, all matching the identical 23-day promoting interval.

Quickest transferring markets (UK-wide): 

Supply: Zoopla

Quickest transferring markets in England and Wales: 

Supply: Zoopla

When analyzing trending key phrases on Zoopla in 2025, “storage” takes the highest spot, changing “freehold”, which had led for the previous two years. Different fashionable search phrases embody “annexe”, “double storage”, “acres”, and “pool”, reflecting consumers’ curiosity in further options and additional area of their properties.

Desk 3: High key phrase searches in 2024 and 2025

Supply: Zoopla

The home worth winners and losers

Relating to the most costly and most cost-effective native authorities to buy a house, the borough of Kensington and Chelsea retains the crown as the most costly native authority within the UK in 2025 with a median home worth of £1,071,600, ten instances costlier than the most affordable native authority of Inverclyde, which has a median home worth of £109,400.

Exterior of London, Elmbridge in Surrey takes the highest spot with common home costs of £705,800, adopted by South Buckinghamshire2 – dwelling to the UK’s least inexpensive city, Beaconsfield – with common home costs of £671,400.

Desk 4: Most and least costly native authorities to buy a house in 2025

Supply: Zoopla

-ENDS-

Reflecting on Zoopla’s 2025 key shopper tendencies and purchaser behaviour report, Tom Invoice, head of UK residential analysis at Knight Frank, commented: “In a 12 months when Finances hypothesis stored a lid on demand for a lot of the last six months, regular mortgage charges underpinned housing market exercise. We anticipate charges to maintain drifting decrease in 2026 and sub-4% mortgages will turn out to be accessible throughout a wider vary of loan-to-value offers.

“The more durable monetary panorama for consumers after the Finances, together with the earnings tax threshold freeze, will more and more preserve demand in verify however the largest near-term threat is political. Finances hypothesis may flip into conjecture concerning the occupants of Downing Road and their plans for the economic system within the early months of subsequent 12 months.”

Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, added: “Whereas there are challenges that stay inside the wider economic system, it has been a 12 months the place the housing market has held its nerve and progressed ahead. Many individuals are sometimes feeling a higher sense of confidence than solely a 12 months earlier, and with inflation forecast to pattern additional downward over the approaching months, we might even see the Financial institution of England really feel that a lot wanted self-worth to additional implement the downward journey for base charges.

“With the Autunm Finances additionally now behind us and with many individuals having a clearer image of what the forthcoming months now appears like from a monetary viewpoint; we hopefully ought to witness a optimistic begin for the housing market as we head into early 2026.”