House price growth slumps to less than 0.5% in April, says Rightmove
House price growth falls to just 0.2% in April, says Rightmove, adding just £890 in a month despite pick-up in buyer demand
- The average asking price for a home in the UK is now £366,247, the property portal says
- Annual growth has slowed to 1.7% from 3% last month
Monthly home price increases have slowed to just 0.2 percent according to Rightmove’s latest home price index, despite an 8 percent increase in buyer demand over the same period.
The price increase adds £890 to the asking price of the average UK home, now £366,247. This represents significantly lower monthly growth than usual at this time of year, when it averages 1.2 percent.
At the same time, annual price growth has also slowed. Prices rose 3 percent in the 12 months to March, but only 1.7 percent in the year to April.
House price growth slowed in April, but remained above the lows reached at the end of last year
Homes bought by first-time buyers saw a higher growth rate of 2 percent over the year, meaning the average asking price for a home for a first-time buyer is now £224,963.
Tim Bannister Rightmove’s director of real estate science said: ‘The current unexpectedly stable conditions may entice more sellers to enter the market who had considered moving in recent years but were put off by the frenetic pace.
Buyers may have struggled to find a home that met their needs in the tight market of recent years and will now find more choice.
‘However, those who have now decided to move should not wait too long to inquire whether they see the right home for sale.
“Not only is the number of agreed sales now back to pre-pandemic levels, but homes are also being sold an average of 12 days faster than currently in 2019.”
The average first-time mortgage rate for a 5-year fixed deal with a 15 percent down payment has now fallen to 4.46 percent, with the lowest rate for this type of mortgage currently at 4.19 percent.
In its report, Rightmove suggested that, faced with record rents, buying is still “convincing” for first-time buyers who are able to overcome the mortgage and security hurdles.
Affordability for first-time buyers has improved as average mortgage rates continue to fall
Start-up agreed sales are now 4 percent higher than in March 2019, and total sales have begun to recover from September, when they fell 21 percent in the wake of the mini budget.
However, they are 18 percent behind last year’s “exceptional” activity level.
Ben Rose, director at Ben Rose Estate Agents said: ‘Locally we are seeing the number of new orders and sales agreed to be the highest for several months, and although this is not the very high level they had during the pandemic. years they are high compared to before the pandemic.
This uptick also suggests that the economy is much stronger than expected and this is reflected in buyer confidence in the market. We hope that these increased numbers will now become the new normal, which appears to be the case this year given the consistency.”
The number of homes for sale per estate agent increased slightly in March from 43 in February to 45, with an average of 55 days before a home has found a buyer.
This was lower than the January high of 62 days.
