UK house prices hit ‘hat-trick’ new high, climbing more than £5.5k since March
The average price of a home has hit its third record high in just three months, as spiralling costs dampen the hopes of Londoners looking to climb the ladder.
Prices have jumped 1.6 per cent since March – the equivalent of £5,537 – to £360,101 on average across the UK, according to Rightmove today.
With the cost-of-living squeezing peoples finances, the housing market appears to be tapering off, according to some of the country’s top real estate agencies.
But the number of transactions remains steady, data from Rightmove showed, with agreed sales over 20 per cent higher than the ‘more normal’ 2019 market.
“2022 has started with price-rise momentum even greater than during the stamp-duty-holiday-fuelled market of last year,” cautioned Rightmove’s director of property data, Tim Bannister.
“While growing affordability constraints mean that this momentum is not sustainable for the longer term, the high demand from a large number of buyers chasing too few properties for sale has led to a spring price frenzy, a hat-trick of record price months, and the largest price increase for a three-month period Rightmove has ever recorded.”
The data seems fairly damning for those looking to buy, particularly first-timers, with a home in London falling even further out of reach.
Those looking to sell in the capital, however, have racked up an average of six per cent price growth on their property, as homes across the country are being bought twice as quickly than before the pandemic.
After London’s priciest areas, including Kensington and Chelsea, were stung by significant price falls last summer, the borough recorded the highest level of growth this month across all 32 in the city, jumping 13.8 per cent year-on-year to £1.73m.
Westminster was close to follow, with average prices climbing around 11.2 per cent to £1.44m.
On the lower end of the scale, Barking and Dagenham was revealed to be the most affordable area in London, despite homes prices increasing 10 per cent in comparison with the same month last year. Bexley and Greenwich were also ranked as the more affordable London locations.
Director of London estate agents Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, said little to ease buyers’ affordability fears, however, urged that now is still the right time to buy.
“We’ve already seen concrete signs that the market is starting to turn in 2022, putting a sluggish pandemic performance firmly behind us,” he said.
“It will, of course, take some time before this starts to filter through and bolster home seller confidence within the capital, but when it does, it won’t be long before asking price expectations start to climb considerably. So while it very much remains a sellers market across the board, now is the time to buy in London as property prices are only heading one way for the remainder of the year, at the very least.”