August 2025 & Year-To-Date UK Premium Property Market Update

First though, what a month August was for UK property and politics!

After just five minutes abroad on a much-needed holiday, I opened the news to find speculation swirling about potential tax changes that could reshape the housing market.

The ideas being floated were significant: removing stamp duty and replacing it with an annual property tax on homes over £500,000; requiring sellers of properties over £1.5 million to pay capital gains tax (which would represent a seismic shift for the market); possible revaluation of council tax bands; and forcing landlords to pay national insurance on rental income.

Ironically, amid all this tax speculation, the now-former Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, found herself in the spotlight over her own stamp duty arrangements. Reports emerged about her purchase of an £800,000 seafront flat in Hove, where she allegedly reduced her stamp duty liability by £40,000, suddenly making the abstract policy debates very personal.

As Harold Wilson famously observed: "A week is a long time in politics." His words capture perfectly how rapidly things can shift, and despite years of uncertainty, the property market has proven remarkably resilient.

The combination of unknown tax reforms and the delayed Autumn Budget (not scheduled until 26th November) will inevitably cause many potential movers to adopt a wait-and-see approach. However, this pattern of pre-budget speculation is familiar territory. History suggests that most of these rumoured changes will remain just that, speculation that never materialises into policy.

Nevertheless, it's certainly worth monitoring closely, and it will be fascinating to observe how the market responds as we move into the final few months of the year.

As we head into September with these questions hanging over the market, it would be wise to look at how the property market has actually performed through August and the year to date.

The UK premium property market has demonstrated remarkable resilience and growth in 2025, with year-to-date figures revealing a market that has not only recovered from previous challenges, but is setting new benchmarks for activity levels. August 2025 data showed continued momentum, though with some seasonal moderation typical of the summer months.

The premium property market has experienced unprecedented activity levels in 2025, with stock levels averaging 93,039 properties year-to-date, a substantial 13% increase from 2024 (82,341) and a remarkable 79% surge compared to the subdued 2022 period (53,760). This marks the fifth consecutive year of rising stock levels.

This was also the fourth August in a row that stock levels have risen, a record for August and also considerably higher than the average for this time of year.

However, they were down 6% month-on-month, demonstrating the market's ability to absorb the increased stock levels we've seen year-to-date, suggesting underlying demand remains robust despite economic uncertainties.

New listings have followed suit, reaching 131,982 properties in 2025 YTD, representing a 5% increase from 2024's already strong performance of 125,550 listings. This is now the fifth year running that new listings have increased, achieving the highest level on record and indicating robust seller sentiment despite continuing political and economic uncertainty.

August traditionally sees a seasonal softening in property market activity, and 2025 followed this pattern with new listings down 23.75% month-on-month.

New listings in August totaled 12,317 properties, slightly down from the previous year's 13,118 but consistent with typical summer patterns. The market's ability to maintain near-parity with strong 2024 figures suggests sustained confidence among sellers.

Perhaps most tellingly, sales agreed figures have reached 59,566 YTD, an 8% increase from 2024, a figure only exceeded by 2022 and 12% above the YTD average of 2020-2025.

August sales numbers were almost identical to both 2024 and the 2020-2025 average, demonstrating consistent buyer appetite even amid ongoing economic and political headwinds.

However, this robust activity has come at a significant cost, with three key warning signs revealing underlying market fragility.

Price reductions have reached record highs year-to-date, marking the fifth consecutive year of increases. Even in August alone, reductions continued their upward trajectory for the fourth year running.

Withdrawals have similarly escalated, rising for three straight years to reach five-year highs. This trend has actually accelerated, with August marking the fifth consecutive year of increases.

Fall-throughs have climbed for two consecutive years, also hitting five-year peaks, though August figures have at least stabilised.

All three metrics now sit above the 2020-2025 average, painting a clear picture of a market where buyers and sellers are increasingly struggling to align on price and terms. While transaction volumes remain healthy, the underlying negotiations are becoming progressively more challenging, a trend that suggests caution may be warranted despite the headline activity figures.

The UK premium property market in 2025 has demonstrated sustained growth and continued resilience. Whilst the August figures show typical seasonal moderation, the underlying fundamentals remain robust, with strong activity levels reflecting a market that has successfully navigated recent challenges.

However, while there's undeniable positive momentum in terms of activity and transaction volumes, the data reveals underlying price sensitivity and market fragility.

Sellers are active and buyers are engaged, but both sides are increasingly cautious about pricing, a dynamic that reflects the broader economic uncertainty we've all been navigating for what feels like an eternity.

As the market moves into the traditionally more active autumn period, the foundation established through 2025's strong year-to-date performance suggests continued momentum.

Yet the unknowns around potential tax reforms in the Autumn Budget could make for a particularly interesting Q4.

Year-to-date, compared to recent years, there are more properties for sale, more price reductions, more fall-throughs, more sellers withdrawing and the average time on market for unsold properties currently stands at 173 days.

This creates a great opportunity for pro-active estate agents to help these sellers who are being under served by their current estate agent.

They could be offering assistance with advice on pricing, home staging, and video to name a few things in an effort to help find a buyer.

The other recommendation they could be giving to sellers and also my top tip to succeed in the premium market this month comes from Google AI Studio and their image generation and editing tool.

I used the Google AI studio editing tool to create a twilight version of this property listing as you can see from the before and after image split above.

This was completely free and took me less than five seconds to create.

I would then be sharing this image in a bespoke letter or a message on LinkedIn with the seller (DM me if you want to find out how to identify the owner on LI) to show them what else can be done to enhance the marketing of their property and if the owner is in your CRM already, you can send them an email or WhatsApp of this as well.

One agent I work with made a few tweaks to one of their existing listings recently, which included adding twilight images rather than just reducing the asking price and this resulted in two fresh enquiries within 24 hours from buyers who had properties to sell totalling just shy of £6,000,000.

Whilst other agents are probably blaming external factors such as potential tax reform on the horizon as to why a property is not selling, be the agent that brings solutions to the table and show them that there is an alternative to just dropping the asking price.

Thank you as always for reading my latest UK premium property market update and be sure to subscribe, so you don’t miss the next release in which I will be reporting on what happened to the premium property market in September and Q3, plus how the market has reacted to the news on potential tax reform.

P.S. If you enjoy reading these market updates, please do consider posting a Google review, I would really appreciate it.

P.P.S. Check out a recent interview I recorded with Rob Brady and Mark Burgess for their Estate Agency X Podcast where I discuss closing the execution gap.