Residential transactions – the post-pandemic picture(Savills)

As residential prices increase across the world, so too do transaction volumes. Commercial residential transactions for multifamily increased to the largest sector by investment volumes, at 28% of all transactions, overtaking offices for the first time in the first half of 2021. End-user residential also returned to pre-pandemic transaction levels nearly as soon as property markets reopened. The strength of residential property markets shows that home isn’t just where the heart is. 

Global real estate investment underwent a major shift in the first half of 2021 as the multifamily residential sector overtook offices to become the largest sector globally for the first time since records began in 2007, when considering deals over $2.5 million. Over the first six months of 2021, $136 billion was invested in residential, 35% higher than the same period in 2020 and 4.1% higher than office transaction volumes. Growth was driven by the global interest in the strong fundamentals for the residential sector. Many locations remain severely undersupplied for appropriate housing, particularly to meet the demand from younger people moving to urban centres.

In the end-user residential market, there were converging factors driving increased transaction volumes in many locations. From the race for space to the shift to working from home, many buyers globally decided that their current homes weren’t working for them. As soon as they were able, buyers made the choice to move to new properties, assisted by record low interest rates and government support for property markets. Across the 15 cities analysed for this article, 80% of the locations have seen transaction volumes above 2019 figures. 

A significant number of properties that transacted were purchased by mortgaged homeowners as price growth squeezed out first-time buyers while boosting the buying power of current owners. Roughly 45% of UK new buyers put their plans to buy on hold in 2020, as Covid-19 landed a double blow of rising house prices and constrained personal finances. The number of first home buyers taking out new home loans in Australia dropped to its lowest level in eight months in June 2021 to 13,869, though the number of home loans for all owner-occupiers fell in June as well, as Australia battles a new wave of Covid-19. 

This article was originally published in https://www.savills.com/