10th
May 2017
A leading UK real estate portal and property website's house price index claims that the average house price coming onto the market is the highest yet, and house sales agreed for this time of year is at a record high since ten years ago before the 2007 financial meltdown.
The average price for a property arriving on the market is £313,655, a rise of 1.1% which is higher than the previous market record of June 2016 when it rose to £310.471.
The estate portal and property website said that "this strong set of figures should help mitigate pre-election jitters".
Confidence from new buyers agreeing to buy their first home is one of the main reasons for the increase, by snapping up properties at a new record of £194,881 which is 6.5% higher than a year ago. There is however a somewhat slower increase at the higher ends of the market with an overall year on year increase of just 2.2%, the lowest since four years ago.
The director of the portal, Miles Shipside, said: “High buyer demand in most parts of the country has helped to propel the price of newly marketed property to record highs. There are signs of a strong spring market with the number of sales agreed achieved at this time of year being the highest since 2007.
“Increasingly stretched buyer affordability will continue to be a price moderator for sellers who are over-ambitious with their pricing, tempering the pace of price rises. Strong buyer activity this month has led to 10% higher numbers of sales agreed than in the same period in 2016. This large year-on-year disparity should be viewed cautiously as the comparable timespan in 2016 saw a drop in buy-to-let activity with the additional second home stamp duty. However, they are also up by 3.8% when compared to 2015.
"With the growth in household numbers and new-build supply struggling to keep pace, demand is strong and has led to the highest sales agreed numbers at this time of year since the heady pre-credit-crunch levels.”
Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for one of the UK's largest provider of expert, face to face financial and mortgage advice on the High Street, also commented: “The steady rate of house price growth quoted in this month’s figures are in line with market expectations in terms of 2017, and certainly a 2.2% increase in asking prices will be seen by many in the industry as reassuring, given the current political and economic landscape.
"It's also encouraging to see a marked increase in activity by first time buyers, as they underpin the rest of the market. No doubt the raft of competitive, low deposit and low interest rates that are currently available coupled with the lack of competition from landlords are contributing factors. The report also suggests that the number of sales agreed in March was higher than the same period last year. Again, this is a healthy indicator given that we observed the buy-to-let spike with attendant rush of activity in Q1 2016. So again, to see that the market is performing over that level this year is encouraging.
"Whilst the announcement of a snap Election has caught many by surprise, past experience around the effect of elections on the housing market has been a minor dip in activity in the weeks running up to an election, with activity post the election more than making up for this. Looking at the context of this election and what it is setting out to achieve suggests that, although this may happen again, there are fewer reasons to suspect it will.”
News Archive »