Asking prices leap as property drought continues

Asking prices for houses new to the market have jumped by an astonishing 3.2% in the last month, Rightmove reported this morning.

It is the largest rise since the height of the property market in April, 2007.

The national average house price rose £7,137 to reach £229,398, meaning that average asking prices are now £13,300 higher than this time a year ago.

In London, the rise is even greater, setting a record average asking price of £427,987 – £40,000 up on this time a year ago.

Rightmove’s commercial director Miles Shipside said that sellers had rosy expectations of prices and, because instructions are in such short supply, “some agents are going along with them in order to win scarce instructions”.

The site also reports that stock levels remain 37% below the average number of properties coming to the market for the same period between 2005 and 2008. But there are wide regional variations.

In the south-east, stock levels are 43% down, and in London by 35%, but in the north are only 6% down.

Shipside warned sellers to understand the severity of mortgage rationing, which is limiting the number of buyers with available finance.

Worryingly, asking prices seem more divorced than ever from the reality of selling prices.

Rightmove’s average asking price of just under £230,000 compares with the latest  ‘mortgage agreed’ selling prices of £163,000  (Nationwide) and £169,000 (Halifax).