Meanwhile, unprecedented levels of activity in early 2016 caused an 11% year-on-year decline in activity, worsened by February 2017 witnessing the lowest level of monthly activity since April 2014.
With low volumes in February, the conveyancing market was kept afloat by January and March in Q1 2017 - recording 84,274 and 91,676 transactions respectively. Overall, total conveyancing volumes rose by 0.2% during the first quarter of 2017 – a ‘flatline’ trend we are witnessing across the wider property market as house price growth and transaction volumes slow.
Following the trend of year-on-year decline, the number of cases conveyancing firms dealt with in Q1 2017 (59) remained steady when compared with the previous quarter (59), but dropped by 9% on Q1 2016. The average firm completed five more transactions in the same quarter last year (64) during the rush to beat stamp duty reform.
Competition remains despite a flat market
By using Land Registry data to examine competitive pressures in the conveyancing market, the Conveyancing Market Tracker has found that competition in the conveyancing sector has remained at a healthy level during the first three months of the year. Firms ranked 6th to 10th on conveyancing volumes saw the smallest year-on-year drop and the most quarterly growth in activity, outperforming the top five firms. Meanwhile, those ranked 501st to 1,000th suffered the largest falls in activity while the number of active firms fell as occasional conveyancers (those ranked outside the top 1000) dropped out of the market.
Despite this, at the end of the quarter, the overall market share among different ranking firms saw very little movement both quarterly and annually. The top 1,000 firms held 74% of the market share in Q1 2017, up from 73% in Q4 2016. Meanwhile, the top five firm’s market share remained stationary at just under 6%, a figure which has slowly climbed half a percent over the past 12 months.
