Finance Choices
House prices surge past £200,000
House prices charged past the £200,000 barrier in the last four weeks, according to Rightmove.
The online estate agent, which monitors the asking prices of the majority of the UK's housing, reveals today that the average house price soared 2.7 per cent in the last month - the largest rise since April 2004.
And this increase - which added £5,281 to the average asking price - means the average value of a property on the UK market is now £201,600.
"The market?s picked up quickly this year. As a result, properties are selling more quickly and stock levels are declining. House prices have stormed through the £200,000 barrier to record levels several months earlier than the market anticipated," said Miles Shipside, Rightmove commercial director.
Along with rising prices, the Rightmove index for February reveals that the amount of time it takes to sell a home dropped by an average of 13 days with estate agents saying that competitively priced property is "flying off the shelves" in many areas.
And the price rises seem almost universal - with the average price of all types of home and properties in all areas of the county rising in value, the first time this has happened since May 2004.
The biggest increases in house prices came at the lower end of the market - with growing demand for terraces and flats as first-time buyers' numbers increase. Increased activity from buy-to-let investors and downsizing divorcees also drove up demand at the lower end of the market.
"Buyers are back, particularly at the lower end of the market. We believe this will lead to further sales as successful sellers move up the property ladder However, sellers must not get too ambitious or the recovery could run out of steam as affordability is over-stretched again," Mr Shipside commented.
And this was not the only note of caution in the survey.
While the average house price rose in all UK regions, some estate agents reported pockets of low activity. This was partially driven by asking prices rising above those available in other areas nearby.
The most expensive place to buy in February was London - where average prices rose 1.6 per cent to £295,685 - while Yorkshire & Humberside saw the largest monthly increase at 6.8 per cent. However, house prices in this region were at half the levels of those in London at £153,138.
To find a cheap UK mortgage, go to www.financechoices.co.uk/mortgages.html
The online estate agent, which monitors the asking prices of the majority of the UK's housing, reveals today that the average house price soared 2.7 per cent in the last month - the largest rise since April 2004.
And this increase - which added £5,281 to the average asking price - means the average value of a property on the UK market is now £201,600.
"The market?s picked up quickly this year. As a result, properties are selling more quickly and stock levels are declining. House prices have stormed through the £200,000 barrier to record levels several months earlier than the market anticipated," said Miles Shipside, Rightmove commercial director.
Along with rising prices, the Rightmove index for February reveals that the amount of time it takes to sell a home dropped by an average of 13 days with estate agents saying that competitively priced property is "flying off the shelves" in many areas.
And the price rises seem almost universal - with the average price of all types of home and properties in all areas of the county rising in value, the first time this has happened since May 2004.
The biggest increases in house prices came at the lower end of the market - with growing demand for terraces and flats as first-time buyers' numbers increase. Increased activity from buy-to-let investors and downsizing divorcees also drove up demand at the lower end of the market.
"Buyers are back, particularly at the lower end of the market. We believe this will lead to further sales as successful sellers move up the property ladder However, sellers must not get too ambitious or the recovery could run out of steam as affordability is over-stretched again," Mr Shipside commented.
And this was not the only note of caution in the survey.
While the average house price rose in all UK regions, some estate agents reported pockets of low activity. This was partially driven by asking prices rising above those available in other areas nearby.
The most expensive place to buy in February was London - where average prices rose 1.6 per cent to £295,685 - while Yorkshire & Humberside saw the largest monthly increase at 6.8 per cent. However, house prices in this region were at half the levels of those in London at £153,138.
To find a cheap UK mortgage, go to www.financechoices.co.uk/mortgages.html
posted by Bruce Wayne at 9:16 AM
House prices surge past £200,000
5 Comments:
Great. There will be a huge surge in people trying to sell, leading to oversupply in 2006. This spinning could be good for HPC.
I wonder how many how of those £190,000,000,000 properties wrongly listed on Rightmove have an impact? We all know about stats and how easily you can skew averages.
In a way let's hope people start asking even more unachievable amounts for their properties, it will drive transaction volumes into the ground.
The buffs at Rightmove clearly are not worried about a drop in sales volumes. They are in partnership with the large estate agents accross the country. As they still have lots of revenue comming in, they have time to spin all they can before realising they need to talk the market down. They probably still think there are "many" people out there who they can still push into buying overpriced property.
Its the independent smaller agents that are closing and having big trouble.
A sign of desperation. Trying to kick start the housing market at the start of a year that will prove harder than last year and may even see the start of the correction proper.
Global interest rates are rising, either ours follow and the debted get screwed, or they fall / stick and everying we import gets more expensive in which case everyone gets screwed.
Growth faltering leading to.........
Need I go on?
I contacted rightmove to ask how they calculated their average prices. It would appear that they try to exclude anomalies. However, I would still wonder how much their data is skewed by a few houses being put in with unrealistically high asking prices.
I received the following reply:
Hello Cassandra,
We take the initial asking price of all new properties onto the site in
the last month, and calculate the mean of them- taking out any anomolies
beforehand (within two standard deviations of the mean). So the property
that is given here as an example would not be included in the analysis.
I hope this explains it enough for you, do reply if not. Thank you for
highlighting that property I will pass this onto the customer service
team who can rectify it.
Kind regards
Charlotte Wheeler
Market Intelligence Executive
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