Average price of home in UK jumps nearly £20,000 in a year
The property market is ending 2020 with a “sprint fin - ish ”, according to an estate agent, with the average house price nearly £20,000 higher than it was at the start of the year, despite the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
Across Britain, the average asking price on a home stood at £319,945 in December ,0.6 percent down monthon-month but a 6.6 per cent increase compared with the same month in 2019, Rightmove said.
In cash terms, the average house price is up by £19,920 compared with a year ago.
Rightmove predicts house prices will increase by 4 per cent nationally in 2021.
It expects the first quarter of next year to be busy, as a stamp duty holiday deadline approaches on 31 March.
Rightmove estimates that a "log jam" of 650,000 properties are changing hands – a total which is unchanged on last month.
It said the second quarter of 2021 is expected to be slower, but continued low mortgage rates will help to support sales.
In Edinburgh a one-bedroom flat on Randolph Crescent in the New Town recently went on the market for £755,000.
Rightmove said holidays on land and buildings transaction tax in Scotland and stamp duty south of the Border have boosted momentum, but buyer demand was already high before the cut was announced in July.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property data, said: "We are confident that the housing market will continue to outperform general expectations next year as it did this.
"Our 2021 forecast of a 4 per cent price rise is more conservative than the unsustainable 6.6 per cent national average seen this year.
"There's likely to be a lull in quarter two unless the stamp duty holiday is extended, but for many buyers its removal will not be make or break, though may lead them to reduce their offers to a degree to compensate for the higher tax, and indeed many sellers maybe prepared to help to mitigate their buyer's financial loss."
Many lenders scrapped lowdeposit mortgages at the start of the coronavirus crisis, but in recent weeks there have been some signs of lenders expanding access to 10 per cent deposit deals once more.