The East of England has been the most active region of the housing market over the past five years, data analysis from Yopa has revealed.
Yopa analysed the total number of completed residential transactions over the past five years compared to the percentage of owner-occupied housing stock in each area of the nation.
Just under 3.9 million homes sold across England over the past five years, equating to 23.9% of total owner-occupied housing stock.
The most active region was the East of England, where total sales equate to 24.5% of all owner-occupied homes, while the West Midlands saw the lowest level of activity at 23.1%.
However, at local authority level, six of the top 10 most active markets are found in London.
In Tower Hamlets some 16,483 property transactions took place over the last five years, equating to 43.1% of all owner-occupied properties in the borough – the highest level of market activity across the nation.
Hackney ranked second at 34.8%, followed by Lambeth (34.8%) and Wandsworth (33.3%), while Southwark (31%) was number six, with Hammersmith and Fulham (29.9%) in eighth.
Outside of the capital, Norwich saw the highest level of market activity, and the fifth highest in the nation, with 9,739 homes sold over the last five years equating to 31.2% of all owner-occupied homes.
Hastings (30.9%), South Derbyshire (29.7%) and Milton Keynes (29.5%) also ranked within the top 10.
In contrast, the London Boroughs of Brent, Harrow, and Redbridge had the least active markets with homes sold in the last five years equating to just 16.5% of all owner-occupied homes in each of the three districts.
Steve Anderson, national franchise director at Yopa, said: “England’s housing market is very much a local affair.
“Looking at the top level regional data, we see a fairly uniform turnover of stock in the past five years, varying by little more than one percent between the most and least active areas.
“But the local authority analysis shows us just how different the situation really is on a more granular level. In some areas we’re seeing a churn of 43%, and others as low as 16%.”
He added: “Home sellers are wise to learn as much as they can about their hyper local market to best understand what kind of value their home has based on what kind of buyer demand there is.
“Because while Tower Hamlets and Redbridge, for example, are only a few miles apart in the same city, there’s a world of difference in just how active their respective housing markets are.”
