According to a new report, the British property market is in the grip of fresh boom, with asking prices jumping by more than £2,500 over the past month alone. Rightmove said the average asking price for a home rose to £309,399 in February, £40 less than its all-time record. It added that buyers and sellers have been invigorated by renewed economic confidence described as the “Boris bounce”.
The British property portal said it received a record 152m visits in January while agreed sales surged by 12 per cent compared with the same month last year. Rightmove predicted price records would be broken in the spring and hesitant buyers should “now jump in”. Critics however, consider Rightmove's monthly figures less reliable than Land Registry data.
Halifax said that in January, Britain's house price inflation rate surged to 4.1 per cent, the highest since February 2018, while Nationwide said prices rose by 1.9 per cent over the month. Rightside director Miles Shipside said, “There is a boom in buyer activity outstripping the rise in the number of new sellers, which we expect to lead to a series of new price records starting next month.”
They 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.” Others said the “Boris bounce” could flag after the budget and if wrangling over EU trade negotiations saps confidence in the economy.
The portal said prices rose in the month to mid-February in every part of the UK except the East Midlands. The highest regional monthly and annual increase was recorded in Yorkshire and Humberside, where asking prices were 5.1 per cent higher than last year. It said prices in Camden jumped by 5.7 per cent over the month, adding £50,000 to the average £1,023,489 price tag in the London borough, returning them to where they were a year ago.
