Rightmove Property Blog » UK

Fourth consecutive monthly asking price rise

clairep — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:00:05 +0000

Rightmove reports that April saw a fourth successive monthly average asking price increase, with a 2.1% (+£4,996) rise continuing the trend seen so far in 2013.

June 2012 saw the highest ever asking price of £246,235, and this month’s average asking price is just £1,529 shy at £244,706. Furthermore, the average price of a property coming to market is up by 6.9% (+£15,717) so far this year. All regions have seen prices rise month-on-month except London, though this should be put into the context of prices in the capital outpacing the rest of the country over the last 12 months.

Miles Shipside, director and housing market analyst at Rightmove comments:
“Transaction volumes may be historically low but, paradoxically, new seller asking prices are within a grand and a half of a new record high. With mass-market buyers still sitting on the sidelines, the size of the active market is a lot smaller, making it easier for an upswing in activity to feed through to an upturn in prices. With London prices pausing for breath this month but likely to bounce back next, May looks like an odds-on bet to deliver a new asking price record. This should not be confused with an overall market recovery, as while spring may be here the ongoing chill of the recession is still in the air. However, it is true to say that more estate agents are reporting more activity in more segments of the market.”

The weekly run-rate of properties coming to market this month, even excluding the abnormally low listings seen during Easter week, was 28,179, down 4% on April last year. With average time on the market down from 83 days in April last year to 73 days this year, there is evidence that growing demand in the market is not being matched by the supply of new properties coming up for sale.

Shipside observes:
“In theory, the combination of more buyer activity and a greater willingness of lenders to lend should whet the appetite of those potential sellers who have been steadfastly stuck in the stalls in recent years. The result is a degree of upwards price pressure in some locations and market segments, benefitting those sellers who have taken the plunge, and in time will encourage more to follow.”

View the full report here.

Bankers, scientists and engineers are Britain’s surprise lunchtime property addicts

clairep — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:52:26 +0000

Scientists, bankers and engineers may seem an unlikely grouping of people, but each working day they unite in the same online behaviour.
Rightmove’s website traffic sees a major jump in activity every weekday-lunchtime, and the three industries holding the highest proportions of lunchtime property addicts have been revealed to be banking & finance, science & pharmaceuticals and engineering & manufacturing.

The spike in Rightmove website traffic every weekday lunchtime is such a workplace institution that it forms the inspiration for the company’s latest TV advert. The advert launched last week and follows the familiar journey of a young lady ‘dreaming’ about her next home move on Rightmove while on her lunch break at work.

Rightmove director Miles Shipside comments:
“While some home moves are carefully planned from the outset, many have more impulsive origins. Serial property dreamers browsing Rightmove can easily be seduced by the property of their dreams and turn the dream into reality. Appropriately the soundtrack that accompanies Rightmove’s new TV advert is Blondie’s hit ‘Dreaming’.”

Rightmove researched the lunchtime trend with a survey of just under 3,000 employees who indicated that they used Rightmove at work. More than 60% of those in science & pharmaceuticals, banking & finance and engineering & manufacturing were found to use Rightmove during their lunchbreak. The most distracted Rightmove users, where more than half admitted to property browsing ‘when I feel like it’ at work, were found in hospitality & tourism. Meanwhile, Britain’s most disciplined workplace home-hunters are in education & teaching and health & social care, which had the highest proportion of employees who browsed Rightmove at the end of the working day.

Shipside adds:
“The professions found to be holding the largest proportion of lunchtime Rightmove ‘dreamers’ were slightly surprising. Although Blondie remind us in the advert that ‘dreaming is free’, it may be that our scientist, banking and engineer users are more likely to have the financial means to move and are therefore are keener to give up their lunchbreaks to see what’s on the market.”

Harrogate is the UK’s happiest place to call home

clairep — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:54:31 +0000

Residents in the Yorkshire town of Harrogate are the happiest in the UK and people living in the North are overall happier than those in the South, according to Rightmove’s ‘Happy At Home Index’ for 2013.

Rightmove’s index uses 12 distinct factors to measure how the British public feels about where they live, covering feelings towards our ‘property’, our ‘home’ and our ‘community’. The result is a unique, nationwide insight into the emotive relationship we have with the place we call home. The survey results also highlight a wealth of fascinating quirks and characteristics about towns, cities and regions up and down the UK; from the fact that people in Lincoln are the most house-proud in the country, to those in Hereford feeling the safest about where they live, and Swansea and Aberdeen being the happiest places to be in Wales and Scotland respectively.

How did your town rank? Check out our interactive tool now.

Rightmove director Miles Shipside comments:
“Rightmove’s Happy At Home Index looks to capture how the British public truly feels about ‘home’ and gives us a view of the happiest places in the UK as rated by those who know best – the people who live there.”

Harrogate comes out on top in the Happy At Home Index for 2013 by virtue of its residents feeling ‘happy’ across a broad range of factors. Although the town did not rank highest on any single measure, it featured in the top 10 on four of the 12 measures, namely; investment (how much residents choose to spend on their home), safety (how safe people feel in their home and local community), recreation (the extent to which people enjoy spending time in the local area) and neighbourliness (how friendly and polite respondents consider their neighbours).

Shipside adds:
“Harrogate’s position at the top of our Happy At Home Index demonstrates the complex web of factors that makes for a happy place to live. The top-ranked places in our survey reflect the fact that we need a healthy balance of not only confidence in the value of our homes and pride in where we live, but also all-round enjoyment of the things to do and in our area and sense of well-being in the local community.”

Find out how we conducted the survey and how your town or city ranked regionally and nationally using our interactive Happy At Home Index tool.

Read the full report here.

Rightmove climbs to 6th most popular website for UK users

clairep — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:34:47 +0000

A new year surge in activity from home-hunters has propelled Rightmove to 6^th spot in a list of the busiest websites published by Experian Hitwise.

Rightmove has long been established in the top 10 of websites by pages viewed and figures for the week ending 19^th January show Rightmove in 6^th place overall, ahead of BBC News in 7^th place. Only the global brands of Facebook, Google, YouTube, eBay and Amazon placed ahead of Rightmove.

Rightmove director Miles Shipside comments:
“January is a traditionally busy time for the property market as the new year provides the impetus for many to turn their attention back to searching and researching their local market with a view to making a change. This is the second consecutive week that Rightmove has been sixth in the Hitwise rankings and to see so much activity on Rightmove so early in the year already provides an encouraging indicator for the year ahead.”

Rightmove spent much of 2012 hovering between 7^th and 8^th place in the Hitwise rankings of pages viewed and so to hit 6^th spot reflects the surge in website activity seen so far in 2013. In a further encouraging sign for the housing market, Rightmove’s January House Price Index also revealed this week that the number of new property listings had jumped by 22% year-on-year.

UK officially a nation of property lovers

sarahbrown — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 09:00:18 +0000

Have you ever found yourself searching for property when you should be doing something else? Or maybe you’re prone to the occasional search for multi-million pound properties, choosing only to look in detail those that have their own cinema room or ten pin bowling alley perhaps?

Fear not people of Britain, because you’re not alone!

When we asked the nation’s home-hunters about their property searching habits, we uncovered some astonishing figures, confirming that Britain is indeed mad about property!

With the rise of the internet, and perhaps more specifically mobile internet, a whooping 82% of you now spend one at least one hour per day looking at property on-line during the period you are actively looking for a new property. Impressively, 14% of you are spending three hours plus looking ensuring that you are the first to find out about new properties to market, and on the ball with comparative sold prices if you’re looking to sell a property.

Home moves don’t however happen too often (thankfully) and so what are you doing the rest of the time when you’re not actively looking to move?

For an astonishing 55% of Brits, they are still looking at property online, be it checking to see which of their neighbours might be looking to move, fantasy window shopping or perhaps just curious to see what’s on offer.

The majority of this group claim to spend between one and two hours searching for property every day (38%), while 5% claim to spend three hours plus, cementing their ground as hard-core property lovers.

“And where are these property searches taking place?” you may wonder. Well for 28% of you, they’re happening at work, with 2% of you saying you spend over three hours looking at property. For those of you working in the property industry, granted, however for the rest of you…. We sincerely hope your boss doesn’t find out!

Some of our tweets from our users who, it seems, really do love a good property!

Optimism for 2013 in spite of largest ever monthly fall

clairep — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:22:49 +0000

New sellers have chopped an average of £7,772 (-3.3%) off asking prices this month. While this is the largest monthly decrease ever reported by Rightmove, it follows an established pattern of December drops over the previous eight years.

Miles Shipside, Director and housing market analyst at Rightmove comments:
“December is the most likely month for sellers coming to market to get very real about the price they ask for their home. This year they've gone a bit further than ever before, though in truth it is symptomatic of the ‘all or nothing’ pattern of 2012. This summer also saw big falls with the distractions of the Jubilee and the Olympics, though prices did rebound in October. It seems that sellers who come to market at times when they know that buyers’ attention is focused on other events realise that their prices have to be extra keen in order to compete. Many who put their property up for sale this close to the festive season will have a very good and pressing reason to sell, so Christmas will have come early for those buyers who have been able to bag a bargain.”

Rightmove predicts a slightly more positive outlook for 2013, though the market will remain patchy. A key factor in 2012 has been the strength of the London market, where average asking prices ended the year 6.8% (+£29,527) higher. Last month Rightmove reported that some of the ‘froth’ had started to come off the London market, but in 2013 we predict that the effect of lower price growth in the capital will be compensated for by stronger market conditions and price growth in other southern regions. On average, The North will experience a continuation of the slight improvement reported in the latter months of this year, though overall recovery will remain much more challenging than in The South. From a national perspective whilst Rightmove’s 2013 forecast is a little more upbeat on the 1.4% rise in new sellers’ asking prices seen in 2012, the balance of pricing power between London and other regions will see a significant shift.

Shipside comments:
“There are several reasons for a slightly more optimistic market next year. There is a positive combination of lenders with greater funds to lend and buyers with a five-year itch to move. Many movers have had to put their housing aspirations on hold since the onset of the credit-crunch, but increased competition among lenders and the slow but steady increase in affordability of house prices may help some to finally move on.”

View the full report here

Average asking prices down in November, but some positive signs for 2013

clairep — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:11:21 +0000

This month sees a drop of 2.6% (-£6,407) in the asking prices of properties coming to market, following the now familiar post-credit-crunch pattern of falls in November.

However, this is the least severe November fall since 2009 and still leaves prices 2% (+£4,617) ahead of where they were this time last year – the highest annual rate of increase achieved in November for five years.

London continues to buck the national trend, but, even with the large lift in London prices removed, the rest of the country is broadly stable (+0.2%) year-on-year. This, alongside some favourable signs from other lead indicators, suggests a somewhat brighter outlook for 2013 as we enter the traditional winter slowdown.

Miles Shipside, director and housing market analyst at Rightmove comments:
“Though the market remains patchy and national statistics are given a gloss by a buoyant London market, there are a number of positive trends that justify cautious optimism as the market enters its’ winter recess. Outside the capital, agents report prices are broadly flat in many parts of the country compared to a year ago. This stability may indicate a sounder springboard for 2013 as the wait goes on for a sustainable recovery in transaction numbers.”

Many home-owners see the new year as an ideal time to place their property on the market. Whilst average stock for sale has fallen from 75 properties per estate agency branch a year ago to 71, competition among sellers for mortgage-ready or cash buyers looks set to remain fierce in many markets. One option for sellers is to prepare their property for sale by spending a few thousand pounds, offering prospective buyers a ‘ready to move into, little to do’ experience. With many buyers having put their cash towards raising a deposit, they have little to spend on improvements when they move in. However, Rightmove research found that only 17% of sellers stated they were definitely willing or able to spend on a ‘make-over’ even if they stood to gain financially by achieving a considerably higher price. As well as the ‘hassle factor’ of home-improvements, this also reflects many sellers’ lack of access to funds to carry out what would be financially astute improvements. It also highlights one of the legacies of the downturn with many sellers suffering from shrinking equity pots, limiting their ability to raise relatively small lump sums.

Shipside notes:
“Diminished or negative equity is a Catch-22 for sellers, as it potentially deters them from making the investment to increase the value and sale-ability of their property and maximise their gains or cut their losses. Agents report that properties that are closest to ‘showhome condition’ and ready to move into are selling more easily and achieving the highest prices, as buyers have little spare cash for improvements. Those sellers that can attempt a mini-makeover as a tactic in 2013 should consider putting some DIY products on their Christmas list.”

View the full report here.

Asking prices jump by 3.5%

clairep — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:06:08 +0000

October saw a 3.5% (+£8,310) jump in new seller average asking prices, the biggest increase for eight months. This goes a long way towards reversing the Olympic-induced price lull over the summer, which saw asking prices of property coming to market fall by 4.6% (-£11,377) over the three months between June and September. This price rebound indicates the market is not performing as badly as some feared.

However, sellers looking to try for a higher price should note Rightmove research which finds that fewer than two in five potential buyers state that they would actually arrange to visit a property if they consider it to ‘match their criteria but be over-priced’.

Miles Shipside, director and housing market analyst at Rightmove comments:
“This month’s jump of more than £8,000 in asking prices is partly an anticipated bounce after the Olympic-induced activity doldrums, though with all regions seeing increases it also provides evidence of some life in the market. The prospect of a few active selling weeks before the winter slowdown means estate agents are keen to attract fresh stock to try and land more buyers. However, this stock-building could backfire if they agree to over-ambitious pricing to please a seller, as it could curb a potential buyer’s enthusiasm to arrange a viewing if the over-priced alarm bell starts ringing.”

The upturn in asking prices, in the absence of other positive influences, is most likely attributable to the continued shortage of new property supply. The weekly run-rate of fresh property stock this month is down by 0.4% on the same period a year ago, indicating little change in sellers’ willingness or ability to come to market. Estate agents are also experiencing a squeeze in average unsold stock per estate agency branch. This figure now stands at 72 properties, a near 10% reduction compared to the 78 recorded a year ago, and much of that stock is “stuck” on the market at prices that render it effectively un-saleable.

Shipside adds:
“After a summer of sporting distractions, optimists may consider lower unsold stock levels and strong pricing to be signs of recovery. However, sellers still need to be mindful that the window of opportunity to sell before the traditional winter slowdown is a narrow one, and they risk being left out in the cold for months until the spring market thaw. In addition, estate agents are reporting that mortgages are still no easier to obtain, with risk-averse lenders nit-picking every detail of the mortgage application paperwork, even from buyers who seem squeaky clean.” Rightmove have found that only 38% of buyers would actually make the effort to view a property they consider to be ‘over-priced’. The remaining 62% stated that they would not initially arrange a viewing inspection even if they considered the property met all their search criteria.

Shipside adds:
“If the first impression of a property gives a buyer cause to hesitate, you often don’t get a second chance. If your property has all the right ingredients to attract a buyer, but they consider the price to be over-cooked, you may fail to give them a proper taste of what your property has to offer. Many buyers make their property decision from the outside looking in, and anything that deters them from being tempted inside means they could boycott your property in favour of one they immediately judge to offer better value. Pricing high with a view to negotiating down can work in a market where buyers are less price-sensitive. But remember our research also shows that properties in the upper price quartiles have performed best since the onset of this economic downturn. In addition, most property values are still below previous peaks, so some sellers may need to price more keenly to be a more compelling buy.”

How much has the UK housing market changed since the credit crunch 5 years ago?

clairep — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:49:47 +0000

Last month marked the fifth anniversary of the Northern Rock crisis that resulted in panicked scenes on the high street and the visible beginnings of the UK credit crunch.
But just how much has the property landscape changed in those 5 years?

Check out our infographic to see the what’s changed at a glance.

To embed this infographic on your site, copy and paste the following code:

Tenants expect more rent rises

clairep — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 16:04:13 +0000

Rightmove’s latest Consumer Rental Forecast finds that six in ten (60%) tenants expect to be paying more for their rented accommodation in 12 months’ time, up from 53% a year ago.

In a market where the supply of rental properties is failing to keep pace with high demand from tenants across most of the UK, the anticipation of upwards rental pressure is greater among tenants in London and the South East. 66% of tenants in London and 62% in the South East expect to be paying more for rented accommodation in a years’ time. This news is likely to be disheartening to tenants in these regions who are already feeling the squeeze on personal incomes more than most. 31% of tenants in the South East and 29% in London are already spending more than 50% of ‘take-home’ pay on rent, both above the national average of 26%.

Miles Shipside, director and housing market analyst at Rightmove, comments:
“The view from the majority of tenants across the country is that rents are only likely to go one way, and that’s up. London and the surrounding commuter belt of the South East have the greatest proportion of respondents predicting higher rents, suggesting that these markets are most at risk of ‘over-heating’ and most in need of further investment from investor-landlords. The continuing heat applied to rents is a double-whammy for the one in two tenants that would like to buy but can’t afford to. These ‘trapped renters’ are faced with the prospect of a downward spiral where spending more income on rent also means saving less for a deposit”.

A piece of royal history… all yours for £2.5million

clairep — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:14:15 +0000

Your chance to own your very own piece of British history has arrived… that’s if you have £2.5million to spare.

Apethorpe Hall, a 48 room (yes 48 rooms!) mansion, which is well known for being one of Britain’s most historic country residences, has come onto the market. The estate is situated near Oundle, Northamptonshire and has seen Kings, Queens and Aristocrats pass through its doors including James I, Charles I and Elizabeth I.

Look around!

The property, which was recently restored back to its former glory, boasts a unique roof walk, a grade II gardener’s cottage, a Georgian orangery, an 18^th century classical library and a secret doorway believed to have used by James I to visit his ‘sweetheart’. The grade I country house’s recent owners include the Catholic Church, who used the property as a school, and the house and it’s grounds have also been used for multiple historical TV dramas (that’s right ladies, Colin Firth has been spotted filming here).

The property was originally built in 1470-80 by Sir Guy Watson and has since become an integral part of Tudor and Stuart heritage; it is thought that residents used to use the Eastside windows to watch for Queen Elizabeth 1’s arrival. Apethorpe Hall’s significance to British history has prompted the English Heritage to require the new owners to keep the property open to public for at least 28 days a year – after all it would be a shame not to share its importance.

If you love the idea of a quintessentially British property but can’t quite afford the Apethorpe Hall price tag, check out some of these British beauties found on Rightmove:

Average asking prices reach new record high for third consecutive month

clairep — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:06:53 +0000

This economic downturn continues to surprise, with a third consecutive record for new sellers’ asking prices. The national average asking price for June is now £246,235, an increase of £2,476 (+1.0%) over the previous month.

However, while Rightmove’s index shows sellers’ prices are now 2% up on August 2007, the month before the UK economy faced the run on Northern Rock, they have fallen considerably in real terms when compared to retail price inflation over the same period. In spite of sellers’ current record price aspirations, in real terms they are still an average of 13% lower. London is the only region where there has been an inflation-busting increase over the same five year timescale, with asking prices 3% ahead of the national Retail Price Index (RPI). The new asking price record is driven by a more robust market in the south of the country, with new regional price records set in London and the South East this month.

Miles Shipside, director at Rightmove comments:
“While the national average price of property coming to market has set new records in each of the last three months, sellers should not break out the bunting in celebration until they have done their homework. It remains a very local market ruled by property style and location, and a few minutes study will reveal whether your property is hot or not. Agents report a two-tier market where those who can afford to price realistically are selling, while those who are equity-poor are struggling to sell as they often have to price up to make any prospect of a move viable. The traditionally more active spring window is closing and a summer of sporting distractions underway. Cutting your asking price to be cheaper than your competition and promoting your selling points better will be the key to avoid being an also-ran in the race to sell”.

Record new seller prices have also been set in two out of the four regions in the southern half of the country, continuing the seemingly counter-intuitive credit-crunch trend of suitable property supply failing to satisfy demand. Previous recessions have been driven by measures taken to combat inflation, with soaring interest rates and repossession numbers. Those high numbers of forced sales helped to provide liquidity in the housing market, something the current downturn lacks. The result is a very patchy market characterised by reduced transaction volumes, with low interest rates helping to keep people in their homes, exacerbating the supply shortage in locations of high demand. At £477,440, London is up 1.7% (£8,126) on the previous average asking price high set last month, while the South East is 0.5% (£1,662) above its previous record set in October 2011. The South West too is only some £300 off an all-time high. Removing London’s record-breaking performance from the dataset demonstrates the extent of its impact on the national average. Stripped of all the capital’s properties, the average asking price across the rest of the country would still be more than 5% adrift of its peak recorded nearly five years ago in August 2007.

Shipside comments:
“These strong rises in the south of the country have helped to push the national average asking price into new record territory. In these uncertain economic times, lenders feel safer to lend to those with a cash-cushion, and those sitting on that cash often feel more comfortable with it invested in tangible assets, including bricks and mortar. The better properties in the better areas remain in short supply, giving sellers of sought-after stock, and their agents, the confidence to come to market at a higher price. The right property within commuting or holiday bolt-hole distance of the capital seems to be an attractive each-way bet”.

Asking prices remain flat in May

clairep — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:24:28 +0000

New sellers have failed to raise their asking prices in the month of May for the first time since Rightmove began measuring housing market statistics 11 years ago. The average asking price of property coming to the market remains virtually unchanged at £243,759, up just £22 (+0%) on last month.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove comments:
“New sellers asking more in May had become the norm, so it comes as quite a shock to see prices flat at this time of year. Perhaps the first-time buyer stamp duty holiday, and the knock-on activity it helped to create, has concertinaed the market’s stronger than expected early spring momentum into the first four months of the year rather than the usual six. The high rainfall in May will have been a further factor in dampening prospective buyers’ enthusiasm to get out and view property, and even if the forecast picks up we have a summer of sport and celebration ahead that will provide further distractions.”

The end of the first-time buyer stamp duty exemption appears to have been a factor in the market losing its price momentum, having contributed to a brisker than expected start to the year. Recently reported statistics for March show that first-time buyer mortgages constituted over 40% of all advances, fleetingly back to levels normally associated with a healthy and balanced housing market.

Shipside comments:
“The post-stamp duty holiday lull in first-time buyers, and the upward chains they help to build, appears to have made the market pause for breath, taking the wind out of spring market sales a little earlier than usual.”

The number of new sellers appears to be stalling too, with the weekly run-rate of 26,595 properties coming to market in May nearly 10% fewer than the 29,333 in April. All 10 regions saw fewer fresh property listings compared to the previous month, at a time of year when enthusiasm to try and sell should be higher. This will help underpin prices in areas with a shortage of supply and keep market conditions more buoyant in various micro-market hotspots around the country. In less active areas, however, seller numbers are restricted as many have insufficient equity to either afford the jump up to the next rung on the property ladder, or obtain the best mortgage rates.

Shipside adds:
“The ability to trade up is a vital component of a healthy housing market, though there is concerning evidence that the numbers who want or are able to trade up are worryingly fewer than those who intend to trade down.”

View the full report

NewBuy’s first purchaser gets ready to move in

clairep — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:28:10 +0000

NewBuy, the Government-backed home purchasing scheme, has seen its first completion. Heena Rai became the first person in the UK to buy a property using the scheme last month when she purchased from Bovis Homes in Peterborough.
NewBuy was launched in March and allows purchasers to acquire a new-build property with just a 5% deposit.

Heena said:
“I was really shocked that we managed to get it all done so quickly. I still need to get my stuff moved in but I couldn’t be happier. I was done with renting and living with other people and felt it was time to do things on my own and stand on my own two feet. This is my first place and it really feels like a new chapter of my life – it’s great to be spending money on my own mortgage rather than someone else’s. Only needing a 5% deposit made a real difference and the initial monthly payments were manageable – and here I am! The fact that I’m the first person in the country to have a NewBuy mortgage is a bit crazy!”

Rightmove have backed the NewBuy scheme with a landing page for home-hunters seeking information about the new scheme. Research by Rightmove prior to the launch of NewBuy found that around 2 in 5 first-time buyers felt they would be more likely to get on the property ladder once the scheme launched. Interest is certain to be high judging by the success of Rightmove’s FirstBuy homepage which has seen over 1 million page views since being launched last year.

Bovis Homes Central Region Sales Director Alison Tindle comments:
“We’re proud at Bovis Homes Central Region to have her on board as the first NewBuy customer in the whole country and I am sure she will realise the benefits of taking up this excellent product. Higher deposits have hindered first time buyers and movers alike and this new 5% deposit requirement promises to unlock the market for a number of homebuyers.”

For more information about NewBuy and to find properties in the scheme visit Rightmove’s NewBuy landing page now - http://www.rightmove.co.uk/newbuy

London and South West help national asking prices to new record high

clairep — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:14:24 +0000

The national average asking price of property coming to market is now £243,737, breaking the previous record set nearly four years ago. This is £1,237 higher than the previous peak recorded in May 2008, just a few months before the game-changing collapse of Lehman Brothers.

However, the rise should not be overstated—if prices had kept pace with inflation (as measured by the RPI) since May 2008 then they would now stand at £270,459, so they have fallen by 9.9% in real terms.

In addition, the national average asking price is buoyed by London’s strong performance. While new sellers nationally are asking 0.5% more than the last record set in May 2008, those in London have found sufficient confidence to raise their asking prices by 14.9%.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove comments:
“From a national perspective, it has taken four years for new sellers to pitch their asking prices above their previous record. However, this is not a universal signal of a housing market recovery. The richest seams of housing market activity are concentrated around those with access to cash and finance, with a strong bias to the south and London in particular. Even within regions there are micro-market hotspots where demand from those that can buy and the confidence and momentum it engenders are helping to push asking prices to new record highs. It’s a somewhat perverse state of affairs for many of the mass-market not deemed as mortgage-worthy by the lenders that, at a time when many aspiring buyers are excluded, the national average price of property coming to the market is at an all-time high.”

Both London and the South West have recorded new price peaks this month, surpassing previous records by 2.1% and 2.3% respectively. Also highlighting the better price performance of the south, the two other southern regions of the South East and East Anglia are just £810 (-0.3%) and £2,489 (-1.1%) off their previous peak prices. In contrast, the price peaks in all of the northerly regions (see table 1) were set during 2007, prior to the withdrawal of Northern Rock as a mass-market lender. Current new seller average asking prices in Wales are the furthest adrift, 12.3% (£23,171) down on their previous peak set in August 2007. The regions of Yorkshire and Humberside and both East and West Midlands are also over 10% below their 2007 record highs, with the North region being the closest to its July 2007 peak, but still nearly £10,000 (-5.8%) shy.

Shipside comments:
“This is a reflection of the new world where house prices in micro-markets are driven as much by banks’ willingness to lend as by consumers’ desire to buy, making buying aspirations more achievable in the relatively credit-worthy south, and London in particular. Those deciding to sell in the south are looking a lot more confident in their pricing power. While there are still micro-market hotspots in the north, there tend to be more negative elements to add in to their moving equation such as employment prospects and lack of equity.”