UK house prices show biggest seasonal rise since 2015
2021-06-30
LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - Asking prices for British homes
between mid May and early June rose by 0.8% compared with a month before, the
biggest rise for the time of year since 2015, as available housing remains in
short supply, property website Rightmove (RMV.L) said
on Monday.
The increase is less than the 1.8% recorded a month earlier
but still takes asking prices 7.5% above their level in early March 2020,
before Britain went into its first COVID lockdown.
"Buyer demand remains very strong, though with an
all-time low in the number of properties available for sale ... and new stock
at higher-than-ever average prices, there are early signs of a slowing in the
frenetic pace," Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property data,
said.
Rightmove, which says it advertises 95% of homes for sale in
Britain, collected the data between May 9 and June 12. British house prices
surged last year despite the pandemic as many richer households sought more
space to work from home, and the government cut property purchase taxes to
reverse an initial slump in sales early in the pandemic.
June is the last month when the full stamp duty tax break
applies, before it is wholly phased out in October. Britain's official measure
of house prices, based on completed transactions, showed prices in the year to
April rose 8.9%, after a 9.9% increase for the year to March.
Rightmove said the most expensive homes were seeing the
biggest percentage increases in asking prices. Typically these were detached
houses with at least four bedrooms whose buyers were less
stretched for cash.
London has seen weaker prices and demand than other parts of
Britain, due to a fall in the number of foreign buyers and less need for many
high-paid workers to commute to city-centre jobs.
Separate figures from property data company LonRes showed
prices were 1.9% lower in expensive parts of the capital than a year ago. The
number of new listings in central London was 33% higher in May than two years
before.
"Demand is not outstripping supply in most areas of
prime London. Estate agents' windows have, for the most part, stayed well
stocked, meaning prices have not seen the rapid growth experienced in other
parts of the country," LonRes's head of research, Marcus Dixon, said.
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