The latest report from Rightmove revealed that the number of property sales agreed this spring has risen to its highest level since before the financial crisis.
The average purchase price has also risen by 1.1% nationally and by 2.2% in the East Midlands.
| East Midlands house price changes
| |
| Avg price Apr 17 | £205,065 |
| Avg price Mar 17 | £200,620 |
| Monthly change | 2.2% |
| Avg price Apr 16 | £196,665 |
| Annual change | 4.3% |
Miles Shipside, Rightmove director, said: “High buyer demand in most parts of the country has helped to propel the price of newly marketed property to record highs. There are signs of a strong spring market with the number of sales agreed achieved at this time of year being the highest since 2007. “This strong set of figures should help mitigate pre-election jitters”
Increasingly stretched buyer affordability will continue to be a price moderator for sellers who are over-ambitious with their pricing, tempering the pace of price rises.
Buoyant buyer activity this spring has led to 10% higher numbers of sales agreed than in the same period in 2016. This disparity should be viewed in the light of the effect of second home stamp duty on buy-to-let activity at the same time in 2016. However, house sales are also up by 3.8% when compared to 2015.
Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau, added: “The steady rate of house price growth quoted in this month’s figures are in line with market expectations in terms of 2017, and certainly a 2.2% increase in asking prices will be seen by many in the industry as reassuring, given the current political and economic landscape.”
First time buyers
Encouragingly there has been a significant increase in activity by first time buyers, as they underpin the rest of the market. This has been helped by the range of competitive, low deposit and low interest rates that are currently available coupled with the lack of competition from landlords.
Rightmove’s report also suggests that the number of sales agreed in March was higher than the same period last year. Again, this is a healthy indicator given that we observed the buy-to-let spike with attendant rush of activity in Q1 2016. So again, to see that the market is performing over that level this year is encouraging.
