Rightmove's January HPI

Rightmove's latest HPI ( Jan 16) shows we haven't lost our obsession with property despite the doom-mongering press.

Rightmove data since the start of this year report higher prices and higher activity -

• Price of property coming to market up 0.5% (+£1,509),
• Rightmove site visits are up 21% in first working week of 2016 compared to same period in 2015

Miles Shipside, Rightmove's market analyst comments: 

“Upwards price pressure remains, with the second-highest rise seen at this time of year for nine years. The early snapshot of home-hunter visits in the first week of 2016 is up by 21% on the same period last year to 27.8 million visits, showing demand is not letting up either. Encouragingly for first-time buyers there’s more fresh choice with more property coming to market in their target sector. With their asking prices pretty much the same as a month ago, perhaps the knock-on effects of the more punitive landlord tax regime have arrived early and they now face a dilemma over whether to buy now or wait to see if prices drop in this sector over the next few months.

While the 0.5% rise in new seller asking prices is lower than the 1.4% recorded in last January’s report, it is higher than every other January since 2007, before the credit crunch began. A lack of property coming to market has been an upwards driver of both prices and unfulfilled demand, though encouragingly there has been a slight 1.8% year-on-year uplift in the number of newly-marketed properties. However, the only sector that has increased is that of two bedrooms or fewer, so the only beneficiaries of this are likely to be first-time buyers or investors looking to buy and complete before the April stamp duty hike. Some of this increase could be due to some landlords selling up or more first-time sellers marketing to take advantage of any first quarter surge in investor activity and guard against a post-April slump. "

Read the full Rightmove HPI Report for January 2016 

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates