Confidence in the property market amongst conveyancers has fallen in the wake of spring’s stamp duty hike, according to new research from the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC).
Analysis of the third quarterly CLC Confidence Tracker shows that 65% feel confident in the stability of the current market. It is down from 72% when the same question was asked three months ago.
Buyers’ confidence has suffered a similar dip, down from 46% to 38%, according to the 158 respondents, although the largest proportion (45%) said clients were neutral.
The report says that the stamp duty hike in April this year – restoring thresholds to the lower levels they were when the government announced the temporary cut in September 2022 – may have dampened the mood of the market after a spike in activity in the run-up to the change.
Nevertheless, the latest CLC numbers show that confidence has improved considerably from the findings of its first tracker survey at the start of the year, when 56% of conveyancers and 29% of buyers reported feeling confident.
Experts are predicting that the current slowdown in house prices, coupled with further expected interest rate cuts, will drive confidence levels back up.
The CLC is also urging practices to engage with opportunities to try and improve the conveyancing process after it emerged that the large majority of respondents still did not feel confident that speed and efficiency had improved and was not getting worse. The number of respondents feeling unconfident or neutral has peaked at 85% and, of those, one in four (25%) described themselves as ‘very unconfident’.
The average transaction time for the large majority is still consistently between three and four months, although almost one in 10 report waiting longer.
Stephen Ward, head of strategy and external relations at the CLC, said: “It has been a somewhat turbulent first half of the year for the property market, but it is encouraging to see that two-thirds of conveyancers are still confident, and we can hope that will increase over the coming months as the market continues to stabilise following the stamp duty changes.
“What is concerning is the number of respondents who are not confident that the conveyancing process is improving, and I urge them to look at the work of the Home Buying and Selling Council and the Digital Property Market Steering Group.
“There is a genuine commitment and drive to reform the property transfer process because we simply must reduce the number of transactions that fall through and improve speed and certainty for buyers and sellers, through improved data sharing, security and communication.
“The entire home buying and selling industry must focus on the needs and expectations of clients first and foremost, so we urge practices to engage with the opportunities available so that the benefits of emerging new digital processes can be fully realised in the consumer interest.”
