Newsworthy items like Brexit and new tax laws have impacted the UK housing market in significant ways. Some sectors have been greatly affected whilst others not so much. Remortgage activity has been solid since the beginning of Q3 of last year. This trend is expected to continue according to many experts within the housing market. Activity within home estate agencies however remains a question mark and Countrywide has seen some negative effects from the market cooling off.

Revenues for Countrywide estate agency have fallen off for Q1 of this year. A 13% decrease was posted for the first quarter after the UK housing market slowed down at the turn of the New Year. A sharp drop in the number of transactions led to a decrease of about £15m in revenues when quarter on quarter comparison is made from last year. The year 2016 saw revenues total £187m compared with this year which saw £162m in the first three months.

It must be noted many transactions were rushed through last year by the end of the first quarter before the new tax law was enacted.

The decline in revenue for the firm started at the beginning of Q4 of 2016. Although expected due to normal market conditions for that time of the year, a fall of almost 30% in house sale exchanges was still the reality.

Alison Platt of Countrywide commented on the latest data, saying: “I am pleased that we have maintained the pace of our transformation agenda during the first quarter.”

Platt added: “In the first quarter of the year market trends were as anticipated. The snap general election called for June 8 2017 is not expected to significantly alter the overall level of market transactions for 2017 and we still expect the market to be around 5 per cent below 2016 levels. Our financial performance has been consistent with our plans and on this basis, we maintain our current financial outlook for the full year.”