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Asking prices set new record as market is starved of stock
Asking prices for properties have surged to a new record level – but new sellers are staying away, starving the market of stock.
Rightmove said that asking prices for properties new on the market had shot up 3% – the highest ever rise in June equating to £8,460 – to £294,351.
However, the anticipated post-election rise in new seller numbers has failed to materialise.
Supply of properties coming to the market is down 8.5% compared with a year ago and down 3.9% on a monthly basis. It means that fewer properties have come on to the market after the election than before it.
The average number of properties for sale per estate agency branch in May was 63 – compared with 70 in May last year.
By contrast, buyer demand looks to be high, with Rightmove reporting the busiest ever May on its website, with 115m visits, equal to every adult in the UK visiting twice in the month.
The busiest-ever single day for visits to Rightmove was on Tuesday, May 19.
According to Rightmove, asking prices for properties likely to be bought by first-time buyers have gone up the most in the last year.
By sector, first-time buyer asking prices are £175,628, up 6.2% from a year ago; second-stepper asking prices are £242,380, up 4.2%; and top of the ladder asking prices are £543,065, up 2.9%.
Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: “Agents report that the election surprise has given a boost to market sentiment, driven by more certainty about future economic and taxation policies.
“While would-be buyers have been able to respond quickly to these events, many potential sellers have so far failed to come to market.
“This has pushed up some of the asking prices of those properties that have been marketed, meaning that buyers are faced with paying a new average record price for the more limited choice available.
“It could be said that this is the price of political certainty.”
http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/new-record-set-for-asking-prices-as-market-is-starved-of-stock/
