Asking prices continue to climb higher despite mounting headwinds for the property market
(Picture: PA Wire)Record property prices have pushed the housing market into a “frenzy” as the amount people paying for new homes continues to rise.
The price of properties coming to the market hit a new record high for the third consecutive month in April, according to property website Rightmove, rising by 1.6%, or £5,537, to hit £360,10.
In London, the average price of a new home coming onto the market rose by 1.9% to reach £677,110.
Prices in all regions and among all types of buyer reached new record price highs for only the second time since 2007. The average price of a home for sale in the UK jumped by £19,000 in the past three months, which was the largest three-month increase since Rightmove’s records began.
In a sign of how determined buyers are to secure their properties in spite of the rising cost of living, more than half of homes were selling at or over the full asking price -- again the highest level ever seen by Rightmove.
The property portal dubbed activity in the housing market a “spring market frenzy.”
Rightmove said the pace of price rises “appears to be tailing off slightly”, suggesting affordability is starting to become a factor, but that high buyer demand for limited stock would likely prevent sustained price falls.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data, said 2022 had started with a “price-rise momentum even greater than during the stamp-duty-holiday-fuelled market of last year”.
Tomer Aboody, director of property lender MT Finance, said surging prices were being driven by a “lack of properties coming onto the market”.
“While the chance of further interest rate rises is extremely high, buyers are taking advantage of low rates and fixing for as long as possible in order to manage their mortgage payments over the next few years,” he said.
Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and former RICS residential chairman, said Rightmove’s figures were ‘asking’ and not ‘selling’ prices, “so don’t allow for increasing worries about the tightening squeeze on the cost of living and rising interest rates exacerbated by the war in Ukraine”.
