Average UK House Asking Prices Rise £14

Results from Rightmove’s House Asking Price Index surprisingly increased between January and February 2023.  That said, the rise was a modest £14 at £362,452 up from £362,438 in January.

Given the doom and gloom in the economy with cost of living rises and interest rate rises, forecasters expected a fall.

The steady initial asking price for the average UK property has been put down to:

• Increasing numbers of buyers are returning to the market.
• Buyer demand is up with 11% more enquiries into estate agents than the same period in 2019.
• Mortgage lenders and banks are now cutting back interest rates with the average 5-year fixed rate now at 4.82% pa compared to 5.90% pa (October 2022) when you have a 15% deposit.

Comment

There are more properties available on the market today than there were.  When we look at even just our local areas, there are double the number of available properties for us than there was this time last year.  IN addition. It is usual for property asking prices on newly listed properties to increase in Spring as buying season ‘kicks in’ after winter but it would appear that sellers are tempering this and are holding firm at the current 4% higher prices than this time last year rather than pushing up even higher, no doubt trying to cash in on current prices and mortgage rates falling back, but we suspect with plenty of ‘wiggle’ room to accept lower offers.