Foxtons says start of year is busiest since pre-Covid

THE boss of London's largest residential property agency Foxtons today said the sales market was seeing its busiest start to the year since before the pandemic, with buyers flooding to take advantage of lower mortgage rates.

- Jonathan Prynn

CEO Guy Gittins said headline mortgage fixed deals falling below 4% "is certainly stimulating the market" in January after a "challenging" year when sales revenues fell 14%. It was overshadowed by the spike in interest rates that followed the mini-Budget in autumn 2022 and the inflation surge.

But in the year to date, buyer applications at Foxtons are up 30%, while new offers are 20% higher than in 2023.

Encouragingly the number of deal fall-throughs is down by 11%, pointing to a new confidence in the market and a determination to get transactions over the line.