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Welcome to your weekly briefing on important things affecting the housing market.

As a subscriber, the facts hit your inbox first. BUT it is always worth tuning into the live stream, as there may be a couple of last-minute additions. Find the live stream here:

Remember: If you’ve recently rented, bought or sold a home, please report your price to the BestAgent Public House Price Index.

This week’s top 5 housing market facts:

1. Otta property uses ONS data to show detached house prices continue to fall
   https://x.com/ottaproperty/status/2016923544244949078?s=46

2. Rental demand drops 20% in a year - Zoopla/FT https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-donnell_living-ftb-landlords-share-7424382835282796544-BWRX https://www.ft.com/content/1372a542-50a4-459b-9698-2eca86a99b8f

3. Sheffield Based Conveyancing Law Firm Group goes Bust https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/staff-in-despair-as-20-practice-network-shuts-suddenly/5125786.article

4. 40% of new build flat owners selling at a loss across the country https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-15363367/Two-five-new-build-flats-sell-loss-gone-wrong.html

5. Bitcoin crashes, stocks sell off, gold and silver whipsaw. Is this market chaos the precursor to a financial crisis?https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-04/asian-stocks-to-fall-as-tech-led-drop-gains-pace-markets-wrap

6. Bank of England forecasts extra 110,000 jobless 

   https://x.com/moving_charlie/status/2019470849472925715?s=46

Thought of the Week:

There’s nothing to stop the slide in house values

If there’s another serious financial crisis that impacts the money market’s ability to lend, that could cause an actual price crash. The risks of that seem uncomfortably high at the moment, but it may or may not happen.

Unless and until it does, the overwhelming influence I see on the housing market is the lack of anything to stop values sliding (not crashing) as the economy continues to contract at street level. The wholesale destruction of the hospitality sector, business rates, minimum wage hikes, on top of record business insolvencies already, the BoE increasing it’s jobless forecast by 110,000 for the next 12 months, the lack of any source of sustainable economic growth, all of it points to a continued slow motion collapse of house values.

Improving affordability for first time buyers and upsizers is the silver lining to this. It wouldn’t be such bad news, but the cause of the slide in values is falling employment, failing businesses and an economy being crushed under the weight of government incompetence.

A crash would be bad news, because it would lead to many people losing their homes through negative equity which is no fault of their own. First time buyers wishing for a price crash is no better than boomers enjoying their property millions while thinking that it doesn’t hurt the younger generations life chances (not that I blame boomers, I don’t, it was policies that caused it).

All of which is to say that, more than ever, unless you’re in a high growth area of the north, eg Manchester, there is little to no prospect of making any money just by owning a home.

So please, everyone, factor that in to your calculations when making a decision whether to buy or rent, and how much to pay if you are buying.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, and let’s hope that the overall effect of easing house prices is more families being able to afford a home.

Bonus thought of the week: Crypto Crash Comedy Crush

I never want to laugh in the face of anyone’s misfortune, but the raft of video memes about bitcoin crashing has had me in tears of laughter, one of my favourites:

In case you missed anything this week…

Two buyers both bid £300k - One overpays, one doesn’t. Why?

“Housebuilding won’t bring prices down” admits Housing Minister.

Most viewed post this week on X:

Most viewed video this week on TikTok:

@movinghomewithcharlie

New Home Buyers: Are You Overpaying?

That’s all for this week!

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Have a great weekend, lots of love and luck to you all.

Charlie