Britain's biggest property website reveals the market is likely to stage a Brexit "relief rally" over the summer, as it revealed signs of bounce back in prices over the past month. Rightmove said asking prices on its website jumped by an average of 1.1 per cent, an increase of £3,447 in the month of April 6, however, remain 0.1 per cent below the level of a year ago. It said the Brexit delay is most likely to boost confidence in the market.
Miles Shipside of Rightmove said, "No doubt there are still a lot of twists and turns to come, but this extension could give hesitating home movers encouragement that there is now a window of relative certainty in uncertain times. We are not anticipating an activity surge but maybe a wave of relief that releases some pent-up demand to take advantage of static property prices and cheap fixed-rate mortgages."
While the property website said rise over the past month was the strongest since 2016, its data shows that the time it takes to sell a property remains at elevated levels, at about 67 days, although below the peak at the start of the year. The property major's analysis comes in stark contrast to a downbeat assessment of the market by Britain's surveyors issued last week. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said it was likely that house prices would fall nationally for the next six months and that in London and the south-east the declines would stretch on for a full year.
House price data has recently become highly volatile, with falling transaction numbers resulting in extremely variable monthly figures. Halifax reported that in February prices rose by an extraordinary 5.9 per cent on the month alone. However, its March report said prices had fallen by 1.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, Rightmove said the strongest part of the property market was family homes, with parents no longer able to put off moving because of Brexit uncertainty. Shipside said, "Properties in the middle sector are often second-steppers outgrowing their first property and it gets harder to postpone a move with growing children. They may have already delayed for a year or two waiting for Brexit clarity and, understandably, their patience is wearing thin."
