The average asking price for new sellers has risen by 0.9 per cent, or £3,301 to £362,438 in January, the biggest increase at this time of year in three years, according to analysis from Rightmove.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property science, said ‘The seasonal increase in new seller asking prices this January from December is particularly encouraging for movers who are looking for the reassurance of familiar trends and a calmer, more measured market after the rapidly changing and at times chaotic economic climate of the final few months of last year.
Additionally, Rightmove reported that despite the impact of rising interest rates slowing the property market towards the end of 2022, the number of buyer enquiries rose by an astonishing 55% compared to the two weeks before Christmas. This is the largest new year enquiry surge in some seven years and indicates what we at North Fox have firmly believed ourselves, namely that their remains huge pent-up demand in the residential housing market in the UK.
There are of course regional variations in this data. The South East actually saw a 0.1% drop in asking prices and enquiry levels there remain low.
The housing market is not one homogenous entity and when we talk about property being unaffordable, we are often mistakenly talking about the South East and to an extent the South West rather than the UK as a whole. While house price to earnings ratios in the South East remain high at around 9.7% on average, the North West’s is approximately 4.3%, less than half. People in the Northwest, North East and Midlands are also spending far less to service their mortgages and rents as a percentage of their take home pay.
To discuss this further please contact one of our expert team.
