Price tag on homes close to new high

HOUSING: The average price tag on a home is on the brink of reaching a new record and now sits just £40 below its previous peak, property experts have revealed.

A study by Rightmove shows the average asking price for homes across Britain stands at £309,399 in February – up by 0.8 per cent.

THE average price tag on a home is on the brink of reaching a new record and now sits just £40 below its previous peak, property experts have revealed.

A study published today by the Rightmove property website shows the average asking price for homes across Britain stands at £309,399 in February – up by 0.8 per cent, or £2,589 month on month.

The increase means that typical asking prices are just £40 below a previous record high of £309,439 reached in June 2018.

There has been a boom in buyer demand, with traffic to Rightmove’s website hitting a new record of more than 152 million visits in January.

Other property websites, including Savills and Heaton & Partners, have also reported surges in activity at the start of 2020.

The Rightmove report revealed that as momentum in the property market continues to build ahead of the spring moving season, a series of new price records is likely to be set in the coming months.

Upwards price pressure is being driven by a post-general election release of pent-up housing demand, and, while there is a long-awaited and welcome recovery in the number of new sellers coming to market, this is being outstripped by a surge in demand from buyers, the report said.

Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: “Buyers who had been hesitating and waiting for the greater political certainty

following the election outcome may be paying a higher price, but they can now jump into the spring market with renewed confidence.

“After three and a half years of Brexit uncertainty, dither and delay, many now seem to have the 2020 vision that this is the year to satisfy their pent-up housing needs.”

Some lenders have recently been chopping their mortgage rates to attract those buying and re-mortgaging.

For example, HSBC said last week that it has reduced fixed rates across many of its mortgages.