Reflecting on a decade of trading, ASAP reviews the property market from 2014

Complete ASAP reveals property transaction times have increased by 23 per cent in the last 10 years

According to the data, in 2014 the average property turnaround time was 94 days. That figure now stands at 122, an increase of 23 per cent, whilst fall throughs have risen by 11.6 per cent to 23,243 in 2024, compared to 22,613 in 2014. This is more of a concern considering it is against a backdrop of decreasing transactions, which are 3.6 per cent lower in 2024 at 1,175,000 compared to 1,218,750 in 2014.

When it comes to house prices, the data shows an overall average rise of 53.8 per cent – from £185,476 to £285,201 today. Semi-detached properties have seen the biggest price rise from £174,092 to £278,793 – an increase of 60.1 per cent.

One-bedroom properties have seen the lowest increase at 8.1 per cent, from £180,686 to £195,390. This is a stark contrast to four-bedroom houses which have risen by 48.5 per cent up to £508,019 in 2024 compared to £342,099 in 2014.

When looking at regional price variations, the South West has seen the biggest rise from £246,602 to £361,813, up by 46.7 per cent. Scotland and the North-East have seen the lowest rises, each at 10.1 per cent.

Commenting on the data, Richard Megson, managing director at ASAP, says: “There are a multitude of influences that have affected the market over the last 10 years, but the post-Covid bounce (partly thanks to the stamp duty holiday), was a pinnacle moment. It had a major impact on the type of property that people bought, including flexibility on location due to the home working phenomenon, resulting in price increases on the outskirts of major cities. It also meant that agents saw a number of operational changes, leading to more outsourcing as businesses scaled up and down to meet demand, which in turn, helped our business to grow.

“Whilst it’s been exciting to see the advancement of tech in the last decade, as well as the proliferation of solutions aiming to speed up housing, unfortunately property transaction times are taking longer and fall throughs are on the rise. This is particularly concerning as, generally speaking, fall throughs represent unpaid work for agents.  In 2014, the fall through rate was 21% and that has moved in the wrong direction to 24% today.    

“From the outset, our aim was to speed up transactions and reduce fall throughs, and we are pleased to have achieved this, with a 9% fall through rate.  Our average transaction times and fall throughs are significantly lower than the industry average, but it’s clear that there is still a long way to go for the industry as a whole – strengthening sales progression can be key to this.

Richard concludes: “As ASAP celebrates 10 years in business, we have witnessed a real demand for our service – with instructions up tenfold (1122 per cent) since our first year of trading. We expect this growth to continue as we evolve our range of services with the aim of supporting agents.  We are excited about the next decade - AI and technology is undoubtedly going to have an impact when it comes to improving efficiencies and automating mundane processes, whilst human interaction will continue to play a crucial role in supporting sellers and buyers when it comes to getting their properties over the line faster with minimal stress – our people are our stardust!”