Didn't some property analysts predict a slow start to the year because of the general election and worries about taxes It appears no one has told sellers - as asking prices have risen an average of over £5,000 in a month, claims Rightmove.
The portal, which says it has seen its busiest-ever January site traffic with over 100m hits, claims asking prices are up in every region of England and Wales:
- Wales up 1.8% annually, 1.4% over the past month;
- Yorkshire and Humberside up 2.4% annually, 2.5% past month;
- North west England up 2.5% annually, 3.4% past month;
- West Midlands up 4.1% annually, 0.7% past month;
- North east England up 4.5% annually, 6.4% past month;
- East Midlands up 4.7% annually, 2.3% past month;
- South west up 5.6% annually, 0.4% past month;
- East of England up 7.5% annually, 1.9% past month;
- South east up 8.1% annually, 1.8% past month; and
- Greater London up 9.7% annually, 2.8% in the past month.
Rightmove says analysis of its data shows there has been a 31 per cent increase in housing transactions in last two years in England and Wales, but only an 11 per cent rise in the number of properties coming to market in same period.
Rightmove statistics show that the average available stock for sale per estate agency branch for the last two months (57 and 58 properties) has never been lower at the beginning of the year. New seller numbers this month are also four per cent below those recorded in the same period in 2014.
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Comments
The rises in different areas over the last month have seen some interesting trends. Whilst the average annual increase does not really do any justice for the East Midlands with half of the annual increase is representing the change of the last month. Furthermore, it is also interesting to see the drop in the number of new sellers compared to this time last year. Could those number possibly include new build listings
four per cent below those recorded in the same period in 2014.
Very interesting, it would seem by those statistics that the rest of England are starting to catch up on London and the South East's annual price increase. I wonder whether we may see some surprises crop up in these results over the next few years
As others have commented, the supply of houses to the market needs to improve drastically before this changes. As a landlord, there has been a definite increase in the number of people turning to renting for the long-term - in many cases, they are just being completely priced out of the market. A good thing for those of us in the rental sector, but not really sustainable for the long-term, I wouldn't have thought.
Yep, it's quite simple - demand still way outstripping supply. Not enough properties coming to market, too many people looking to buy. It's not hard to see why asking prices are on the rise.
Whoever wins the next general election needs to put a proper housebuilding programme in place - it needs to be at the top of the agenda, not an after-thought. The property market in this country has been in dire straits for a while - a better supply of houses would be a start!
The lack of supply of the right kind of properties coming to the market has been an ongoing problem affecting the housing market for some considerable time now, however, for prices to continue to rise depends on enough willing buyers with sufficient mortgage funding, and rising wages for those anticipated house price increases to be sustained. As we know the Bank Of England is already trying to restrict the flow of mortgage funding in an attempt to subdue the market and as for general wage inflation that also remains generally suppressed so its hard to see how house price inflation will continue to maintain any further momentum for the time being.