You are here: cherry > Press releases for March 2024 > Phoebus comment on HMRC property transactions: digitising property data will help boost the property market

28 March 2024

Adam Oldfield, chief revenue officer at Phoebus, said: “These numbers are a great improvement from January’s figures, where we saw a 10% decrease in non-seasonally adjusted property transactions compared to January 2023. In February, transactions were only 3% lower than February 2023.

“While still down on last year’s figures, this reflects the increasingly positive market sentiment that we’ve been seeing in recent months. Despite the lower dip in inflation than expected and recognition that the economy is moving in the right direction, we have yet to see the Bank of England cut interest rates. Andrew Bailey keeps edging the car forward each time we try to get in.

“This isn’t driving the stability we need in the housing market. The current oscillation of mortgage rates is mesmerising – every day we see lenders lowering and raising interest rates.

“We should see a very different picture for property transactions in the coming years, driven in part by the digitisation and open sourcing of property data. Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) thinks it should slash their contract exchange times from an average of 22 weeks to less than a month.”