Cash buyers of UK homes spent one-third more on their property purchases in the year to March than in an average pre-pandemic year, analysis has found, underlining the role of mortgage-free purchasers in driving the property boom.
There were 482,000 cash buyers in the year to March 2022 and they spent £178bn buying homes — 17 and 32 per cent higher than the three-year average before the pandemic respectively — according to research by estate agent Savills.
Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said the proportion of cash buyers in the market might have been expected to fall in the past year, since home loan rates remained at historic lows and drove demand from mortgaged buyers. But the share of cash buyers remained unchanged at about 35 per cent of the market, and the average cash buyer bought a home valued at £368,600, compared with spending of £302,500 by the average mortgaged buyer.