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Highlights
- A survey by estate agent Savills, representing 130 UK offices, observed that over 50% of Brits want to downsize their houses.
- While having realistic pricing is important, there is still a significant shortage of bigger homes.
The UK housing prices have witnessed a rapid seesaw battle between rising interest rates, stamp duty and the space race. While housing prices witnessed growth during the Covid-19 period, ever since the inflation in Britain, several banks have been forced to raise the interest rates in the second half of 2022.
Rising interest rates and overall macroeconomic conditions have impacted the housing market. In fact, British house prices rose for a third month in a row in March, which has been a constant phenomenon since the disastrous mini-budget last September.
According to data from mortgage lender Halifax, house prices have increased by 0.8% in month-on-month terms. This is the second-strongest gain since June last year after February's 1.2% increase.
This has resulted in Brits looking to look for smaller properties since last September. A survey by estate agent Savills, representing 130 UK offices, observed that over 50% of Brits want to downsize their houses.
Andrew Perratt, head of UK residential at Savills, noted that while realistic pricing is important, there is still a significant shortage of bigger homes. Thus, finding the right home is one of the biggest barriers for those planning to downsize.
The findings indicated that the homebuyers are now looking for pocket-friendly homes with lower maintenance overall. Amid this, let’s explore how some LSE-listed housing stocks are faring in the market today.
Persimmon Plc (LON: PSN)
Headquartered in York, Persimmon Plc constructs executive family homes to small studio apartments. With a market cap of £3,938.17 million, the housebuilding company had given its investors returns of -42.18% and 3% in one year and on a YTD basis. Persimmon Plc on 11 April was up by 2.19%, trading at GBX 1,260.00 and an EPS of 2.47.
Taylor Wimpey Plc (LON:TW)
Last month, British housebuilder Taylor Wimpey indicated a sales dip, reflecting a slowdown in the housing sector. The FTSE-100 constituent on Tuesday was up by 1.30% and was trading at GBX 116.55 at 8:30 AM BST. One of the largest UK-based housebuilding firms has 23 regional businesses across the UK and also has its operations in Spain. The High Wycombe located Taylor Wimpey had a market cap of £4,063.55 and an EPS of 0.06.
Redrow Plc (LON: RDW)
Another prominent housebuilding firm Redrow Plc has 14 operational divisions across the UK. The FTSE-250 constituent, Redrow, boasted of a market cap of £1,528.82 with an EPS of 0.58. Redrow Plc on 11 April was trading at GBX 470.60 and was up by 1.80%. The housing company had given its investors returns of 3.83% and -13.06% on YTD and one-year basis.
