Another record high for average price of a house
Biggest cash jump in three-month period ‘ever recorded’
The average price tag on a home has hit a new record high for the third month in a row, pushing over the £360,000 mark according to a website. Over the past three months, the average asking price has surged by £19,082 – the biggest cash jump Rightmove has recorded in any three-month period since its records started.
It said the average asking price has jumped by £5,537 in the past month alone. Across Britain, the average asking price for a home in April is now £360,101, up from £354,564 in March.
More than half (53%) of properties are selling at or over their final advertised asking price, amid high demand for a limited stock of properties, the website added. It is the highest percentage Rightmove said it has ever measured.
Properties are achieving 98.9% of the final advertised asking price on average, which is also the highest percentage for Rightmove’s records.
The average time it takes to sell a property has halved over the past three years, according to Rightmove’s figures.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data, said: ‘With three new monthly price records in a row, 2022 has started with price rise momentum even greater than during the stamp duty holidayfuelled market of last year.
‘While growing affordability constraints mean that this momentum is not sustainable for the longer term, the high demand from a large number of buyers chasing too few properties for sale has led to a spring price frenzy, a hat-trick of record price months, and the largest price increase for a three-month period Rightmove has ever recorded.
‘The strong momentum has carried over from last year and, combined with the impetus of the spring moving season, has delivered the quickest selling market we’ve ever seen.’
Looking ahead, Mr Bannister added: ‘With the demand and supply imbalance being so out of kilter, it looks like any substantial slowdown will be gradual in coming and be a soft rather than hard landing.
‘It seems likely that the supply/ demand mismatch will remain for at least the rest of this year.’
Jon Brierley, managing director at Lennon James Property in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, said: ‘Well-marketed and sensibly-priced homes are in huge demand, with a queue of proceedable buyers waiting in the wings, which has resulted in homes launching onto the market and being snapped up within a matter of days.’