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Monday, June 20, 2016

Average asking price hits a high

Despite  slowing house price growth( 8.2% according to the first UK House Price Index ) sellers are remaining optimistic.

Rightmove's Asking Price HPI for June 2016 has reported a record high for the average UK asking price, up 0.8% during June to £310,471. UK asking prices have seen an annual rise of 5.5%. 

Key points from Rightmove's June data -

  • Asking prices for property coming to market up 0.8% (+£2,320) to new high of £310,471
  • Lack of supply lead to drop in average selling period to 57 days, the fastest ever.  
  • Referendum jitters putting off sellers, new listings down 5.3% on June 15
Rightmove's Miles Shipside, comments:

“In many parts of the country, the over-riding factor of supply outstripping demand has so far overcome buyers’ usual reluctance to make major financial decisions at times of political uncertainty. Most seem to be getting on with the certainties they can control, namely if you find a suitable property snap it up. Indeed the figures for average time to sell indicate that properties are being snapped up more quickly than ever."

With today’s tighter lending criteria, marking a property as sold before you’re certain that the buyer has the means to pay for it could mean missing out on other more suitable purchasers. It takes time to check that a prospective buyer can get a mortgage, and ensure that all other buyers in the chain are also in a position to proceed. In spite of these extra delays and necessary diligence, the length of time to sell is the lowest we’ve ever measured. However, this does not mean that sellers can be over-ambitious on their asking prices, as buyers’ affordability is increasingly stretched and they’re shopping around so their budgets go further. If you set too high a price your property can become stale and be ignored by suspicious buyers even if later reduced to a more sensible figure. Given that housing markets dislike uncertainty, which could become a reality in the event of a Brexit vote, any dampening of buyer activity might mean that more realistic pricing would be an even more critical factor to achieve a sale.

If you’re debating whether to trade up and make a big financial commitment you naturally might hesitate before putting your property on the market just a few weeks before you know the vote outcome. With mere days to go the number of new listings is still about 95% of the norm for this time of year, so the drop-off is relatively small in spite of what many are calling the biggest vote of our generation. This could mean that people are struggling to assess what the impacts might be, or are choosing to ignore them until they become more apparent. A vote to Remain should mean that the housing market quickly returns to its previous norm, but a vote to Leave would create political and economic uncertainty, which historically has had more serious repercussions.”
Wishful thinking by optimistic sellers?

Perhaps.

In or out?

Who knows?

rightmove house price map june 2016



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