Published: 01/12/2025

Transparency and certainty help local vendors as buyers rush to have sales agreed before Christmas.

Mount & Minster has seen a flurry of activity within just a few days of Rachel Reeves' hotly anticipated Autumn Budget.

In the eight weeks before the Chancellor’s announcement, the agency’s East Midlands residential teams agreed around 67% of the value of property compared to the same period last year, as buyers held off from making any major decisions. For those that were already under offer, across its network in London, Lincoln, Newark and Grantham, the estate agents reported buyers pushing hard to complete before any potential tax surprises landed.

Once the Budget actually dropped, Ralph Wyrley-Birch, Managing Partner at Mount & Minster, has reported that the mood has shifted again very quickly. With the uncertainty out of the way, some of the would-be buyers who’d been sitting on their hands have now jumped back in, and the firm has seen a noticeable lift in the number of offers in just a few days post-Budget, perhaps setting a precedent for the early 2026 as well.

According to Mount & Minster estate agents, the Chancellor’s clarity has helped unlock a backlog of “pent-up demand” that built up while everyone was second-guessing what might be in the Budget. Now people know where they stand on policy, they can make decisions and press GO on their mortgage applications.

The agency is also leaning into a “value” story. It points out that, compared with three or four years ago during the COVID boom, parts of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire (and indeed prime central London, where prices are about 20% lower than in 2015) all look relatively good value if you’re able to think in mid- to long-term horizons, rather than trying to time the market perfectly.

Our research into market activity will be closely analysed in the lead-up to Christmas, so as to determine whether a mini-boom is likely to be heading our way in the first quarter of 2026.