Rightmove March House Price Index sees asking prices break through the previous highs to set a new record across England and Wales.
Key Figures
- Average asking prices through rightmove.co.uk up 1.6% over the month and 6.8% over the year.
- Average asking price for England and Wales is now £255,962
- Broken the previous all-time high of £253,658 set back in July 2013 by an increase of 0.9%
- Slowdown seen in London with primer boroughs seeing price falls – yet a new record for the capital set, up 1.5% to £552,530
- Rightmove.co.uk see an increase in supply to offset the buyer demand. 3.4% increase in properties advertised against last months figures
Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst comments:
“Spring is in the air and the country is finally on the move. With prices on the up and set to increase more, there is a greater sense of urgency among buyers, and as an increasing number of them are existing home-owners, the supply of property for sale is starting to increase to meet growing buyer demand.
The mass property market is starting to unlock after years of being handcuffed by fragile consumer confidence and a lack of low-deposit mortgages. The result is a new national asking price record, driven by a mortgage market that allows pent-up demand to be released combined with a welcome economic recovery.”
The average number of properties available for sale per agent – 58 – is also up and back to the levels seen in Dec 13. However this is below that seen a year ago in Feb 13 when there were 65 properties for sale.
Regional picture
Nearly all regions saw an increase this month with only the East Midlands with a fall in asking prices, down -0.2% against last month. The North West (0.0%) and East Anglia (0.2%) only just managed to avoid falling prices.
Elsewhere in England and Wales it was the West Midlands that had the best February, with a 3.9% rise in prices and Wales was very close with a 3.8% rise, followed by the North with 2.5%.
Greater London was in the middle with a 2.1% increase, yet still far exceeding the rest of England and Wales for the yearly growth with an 11.3% growth rate.
London focus
As London is such a large market it is useful to know the London Borough winners and losers. In March 2014 the winners were:
- Haringey -> with a 9.5% increase to an average of £597,634
- Barnet-> with a 4.9% increase to an average of £648,330
- Hounslow -> with a 4.7% increase to an average of £609,332
The Losers were:
- Kensington & Chelsea -> with a -2.4% descreas to an average of £2,118,956
- Westminster -> with a -2.3% decrease to an average of £1,468,013
- Merton -> with a -2.2% decrease to an average of £523,669
