Stock levels are beginning to increase as industry data reveals record price rises again for May’s figures with Zoopla recording average house prices exceeding £250,000 for the first time, with annual growth of 8.4%. Rightmove’s latest research reveals asking prices jumped by £55,551 in the two years since the pandemic, a figure never before witnessed in over 20 years of tracking prices. They’ve also seen a small increase in the average number of homes each estate agent has for sale since the start of the year, meaning buyers are slowly but surely being offered greater choice when searching for their next home.
Despite growing headwinds from the squeeze on household budgets due to high inflation and a steady increase in borrowing costs, the housing market has retained a surprising amount of momentum, according to Nationwide, which has also seen annual house price growth in double digits and the 10th successive monthly increase in May.
Demand is being supported by the strong labour market, where the unemployment rate has fallen towards 50-year lows, and with the number of job vacancies at a record high. At the same time, the stock of homes on the market has remained low, keeping upward pressure on house prices.
However, a ‘new normal’ housing market is emerging showing resilience as stock levels begin to improve and buyer/seller confidence is maintained says OnTheMarket. They found in that 76% of active buyers in the UK in April were confident that they would purchase a property within the next 3 months and 82% of sellers said they would sell their property within the next 3 months.
As we celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Nationwide looked back to 1952 when its first house price data showed that the average UK price was £1,891 – around £62,000 in today’s money, 4.3 times higher today than in 1952. Then just 32% of households owned their home compared to more than double that today at 65%.
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