Leap in asking prices as house-buyers get set to move

One of the country’s leading property websites, Rightmove, has revealed that asking prices have risen to £251,964 on average across England and Wales, which is 6.9 per cent higher than a year ago as demand from would-be buyers continues to strengthen.

This is the highest annual rate of growth since November 2007 and means that new sellers are now asking over £16,000 more for their home than those who came to market a year ago.

On a month-on-month basis, asking prices were ramped up by 3.3 per cent across the country, although Rightmove said that signs that more sellers are starting to coming to market could have a calming effect on prices in some areas the coming months.

Every region saw year-on-year growth in asking prices, from a 11.2 per cent year-on-year increase in London which took average prices to £541,313, to a 0.1 per cent uplift in the North East, pushing typical prices to £142,372.

In the Yorkshire and the Humber region, average asking prices rose 4.1 per cent year on year to reach £155,569 on average.

Last year, the average price for a property in the Yorkshire and Humber region was £149,455, according to Rightmove’s figures.

And in Wales, asking prices are up by 2.3 per cent year on year, to reach £165,055 on average.

Rightmove said there was a “welcome jump” in the number of properties coming to market this month.

The number of new properties listed on the website has averaged 27,768 over the last four weeks, marking an 18 per cent increase on the same period a year ago.

But there are also signs that this extra supply is already being soaked up by buyer demand, indicating that sales numbers could be “considerably higher in 2014 than 2013”, the website said.

It said there has been a slight fall in the average number of properties for sale per estate agency branch over the month, from 58 homes to 57.

If the rise in properties coming on the market continues and starts to run ahead of buyer demand, this will ease the upwards pressure on house prices by widening the number of potential homes for people to choose from.

But Rightmove said it will take more than one month of improvements in new listings to bring the market back into balance and some “hotspots” have seen no uplift in new property listings at all.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said that supply and demand imbalances were getting worse in many markets due to a lack of additional housing stock over several years.

He said: “The housing market can only help to support a wider economic recovery if there is a sustained boost to property supply and not just buyer demand, and there is some early evidence that this is happening.

“However, supply and demand imbalances remain and are getting worse in many markets, as a result of years of under-provision of additional housing stock, especially in the areas where the local economy and employment are strong.”

Mr Shipside said January had been a very busy month for the website which he said provided further evidence that the market was “gathering momentum”.

The Government’s flagship Help to Buy scheme has helped to boost demand in the housing market by improving the availability of mortgage deals for creditworthy buyers with deposits as low as five per cent.

But critics of the scheme argue that it has also helped to fuel an imbalance between demand and supply in the housing market, which is putting an upward pressure on house prices and encouraging people to stretch their borrowing.

Last week, the Money Advice Service (MAS), a body set up by Government, released research which found that one in five people who have got on the property ladder in the last two years now regrets not buying somewhere cheaper.

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