Residential transactions in May down 2% compared to April

This headline rise flatters the market. Transactions are up on last year because April and May 2025 were distorted by the SDLT cliff edge, but the monthly fall tells a more sobering story. The housing market is moving, not motoring. Higher taxes have made moving more expensive, while political uncertainty keeps buyers and sellers second-guessing big decisions. Transaction volumes matter because they are the market’s oxygen: without enough sales, chains stall, agents suffer and prices become harder to read. Right now the UK market is functional but fragile. Demand is there, especially where sellers price realistically, but confidence is thin and policy risk is doing no favours to households already wrestling with high costs.

Despite the Middle East conflict maintaining pressure on inflation and cementing a higher mortgage rate environment, the UK housing market shows striking grit. May 2026 data reveals a minor 2% monthly dip in residential transactions to 98,450, yet volumes sit 17% higher year-on-year. While this annual surge is inflated by the "ghost" of May 202, when activity collapsed following March SDLT threshold changes, flirting with 100,000 transactions is a very healthy result.

Transaction volume is the ultimate market health check, driving economic liquidity. Rising volumes prove buyers can absorb today's higher borrowing costs. Ultimately, the market has transitioned into a stable, price-sensitive buyer's market; choice is up, and realistic pricing secures sales.

The property market is pretty active esepcailly with the cheaper fixed mortgage rates starting from 4.19% at the moment. There is still a strong demand for properties and people wanting to buy their first home and move up the property ladder, but there are a lot of flats for sale as the landlord exidus counties. If Andy Burnham is elected, it would be fantastic if he could look at stamp duty and do something to make the system more sensible. Incentivise older people to downsize and lower the tax for families moving up the property ladder. It would also be good to do something about the reported 26 million spare rooms in homes across the UK.

A 17% jump year on year sounds dramatic, but a lot of that is down to how weak last spring was once the stamp duty changes pulled so many completions forward into March 2025. The more telling number is that activity is holding broadly steady month to month, because that is what a healthy, functioning market looks like rather than one lurching from one tax deadline to the next.
Transactions matter because every completed sale frees up a chain, gets a first time buyer through the door and keeps surveyors, solicitors and removal firms in work. What I'm seeing on the front line is buyers who have stopped waiting for rates to tumble and are just getting on with it, and with mortgage choice and some decent lender reductions from where we were in April and May there is plenty out there to help them do exactly that.

Volume of transactions are of course only one aspect of the marketplace, and often mask a more nuanced story which is not necessarily getting told. Understanding where this activity is taking place is another, perhaps more meaningful reference point.
Market activity appears to be relatively healthy at the lower levels of the housing market. With properties under £350,000 trading well. In addition family houses are trading well in the core market as buyers are prioritising larger purchases earlier, rather than trading several times up the ladder.
Where things feel worryingly slow is at the upper end of the market, and within the typical investor market, including 1-2 bedroom flats or large country houses. With the government and Mr Burnham apparently increasingly looking towards the property market as a source of tax revenue, where the transactions are happening should concern them more than simply transaction volume.