Landmark residential property trends report Q3 ‘24 – October 2024 originally published by Landmark Information Group

What makes the Scottish property transaction process more effective than our counterparts in England & Wales. 

Landmark’s Property Trends Report for Q3 2024 is now live, providing an in-depth analysis of developments in the residential sector. Richard Hepburn, Managing Director of Millar & Bryce, explores the current market trends presented in Landmark Information Groups’ Q3 property trends report.

In our latest quarterly Property Trends Report from parent company, Landmark Information Group, presenting July-September 2024 data on listings, Sold Subject to Missives, completions and registered sales, Scotland’s figures offer a valuable perspective in comparison to the rest of the UK. Completions were down just 13% in Q3 2024 vs Q3 2019 (the last ‘normal’ pre-Covid benchmark year), which contrasts sharply with England and Wales – where completion volumes were down 42% – indicating that Scotland’s streamlined transaction process working more efficiently. 

So why are property transactions more likely to be successful in Scotland?

Devolved matters; Scottish Parliament

Across the UK, the uncertainty over mortgage rates and the new Labour Government kept the brakes on the residential market. In Scotland, as land and property related matters are devolved to the Scottish Government, the implications from ongoing political unrest have had less of an impact.

Richard says, “Whilst some sellers and buyers in Scotland might have been holding off to see what beneficial changes the new UK Government will make the fact that some key levers in the property space are controlled by the Scottish Government (transaction taxes, first-time buyer incentives) means, we may not see the same profile of activity going forward.”

As prospective buyers paused ahead of the Budget in the hope of more favourable interest rates, residential listings remained high, and the presence of sub-4% interest mortgage deals started to create more seller and buyer confidence.

Continuing, Richard commented, “One other factor in the mix is the first new Labour Government Budget. Down South, there has been the sense that some buyers have held off to see if there are any property tax changes to come before acting. This might have lesser impact on us with property taxes set locally by the Scottish Government. The SDLT changes from Spring 2025 in England & Wales announced in the 30th October budget won’t impact Scottish buyers but it remains to be seen what changes the Scottish Government might announce in the 4th December Scottish budget.”

While the expected November 0.25% base rate interest rate cut to 4.75% has gone ahead, uncertainty remains with major UK lenders increasing mortgage rates and predictions that these will remain at this raised level for some time on the back of , with some measures in the October 30 budget .

Home Report

Earlier this year, Richard commented on the ‘dynamic’ of Scotland’s transaction end-to-end pipeline and market that allowed a more efficient transaction process with quicker turnaround times.

In Scotland, we have the well-established Home Report at the beginning of every listing process, mandatory under Scottish Government requirements. This also satisfies many of the up-front information requirements under the National Trading Standards Material Information rules that came into force in the Autumn of 2023. Their ask is simply to ensure that sufficient transparency is given on all ‘material information’ to prospective purchasers right at the start, avoiding them wasting time and money in considering a property that may not be suitable for them. These extend to items not typically included in the Home Report currently such as flooding, property rights (ie. access) and impact of coal mining. Flooding is a good example of a forward-looking risk which is not covered off in the current transaction process in Scotland but may in the future be impacted by the effects of climate change for example.

Richard continues: “To further compliment the current Home Report, Landmark Scotland has developed a Supplementary Report with the aims to further close the gap in satisfying the Material Information requirements, providing the additional, property specific, information needed to comply with parts B & C of the rules”.

Whilst overall we don’t have the same transaction delays as in England and Wales, with the Home Report already recognised by National Trading Standards as being pretty close to the levels of up-front transparency they require, this supplementary information completes the picture.

Q4 Insights

Richard commented, “As economic factors continuing to stabilise and Scotland’s efficiencies in home buying and selling make for a more streamlined transaction process – the outlook for Q4 and into 2025 is looking more positive. A healthy residential property market is a proven factor in improving the economy overall.”

Download our report

For more in-depth insights, check out our Q3 2024 Residential Property Trends report today.

As of April 2024, the number of open cases in the Registers of Scotland’s backlog exceeds 119,000, with the oldest case dating back to January 2018.

While homeowners are not restricted from selling, remortgaging or making changes to their land or property title whilst the application is open, it can create unnecessary additional time, effort and sometimes costs for solicitors.

More worryingly we have recently seen a number of occasions where standard securities that were recorded in the Sasine Register have not been discharged as part of the First Registration and solicitors acting in any subsequent transactions are not aware of their existence when following normal practices, until the application makes it out of the backlog!

Once a property moves to the Land Register, there is no need (in theory) to look at the Sasine Register. A Legal Report for a property that has left the Sasine Register will only report on the Land Register title or pending application(s). If the parties acting in the first registration have failed to satisfy their obligation to discharge an outstanding standard security, then this won’t be apparent in normal practice.

We can help mitigate the risk of the above situation. If a property is undergoing first registration, we can send the legal report as normal. However we can also make you aware and arrange an unregistered legal report. We can examine the evidence of the original, identify the sasine search sheet and provide an unregistered legal report over the sasine title(s) making sure there are no surprises when you receive your completed title sheet.

At Millar & Bryce we’re here to help, as well as being experts on searches, we understand your requirements for conveyancing and registration and provide pro active solutions to mitigate risks in transactions.

If you’d like further details, then please contact your Account Manager or email us at relationship@millar-bryce.com