UK house prices rise at fastest January rate on record - Rightmove
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Monday 20 Jan 2020
(Sharecast News) - Asking prices for UK houses rose at their fastest pace on record for the month in January, according to Rightmove, with sentiment boosted by the outcome of the general election.
House prices were up 2.3% on the month, marking the largest price rise recorded at this time of the year since the Rightmove house price survey began in 2002. Prices had fallen 0.9% in December.
This pushed the annual rate of increase to 2.7%, which is the highest level since July 2017. Prices had risen 0.8% the month before.
Rightmove director and housing market analyst Miles Shipside said: "These statistics seem to indicate that many buyers and sellers feel that the election result gives a window of stability. The housing market dislikes uncertainty, and the unsettled political outlook over the last three and a half years since the EU referendum caused some potential home-movers to hesitate.
"There now seems to be a release of this pent-up demand, which suggests we are in store for an active spring market. The early birds are on it, with over 1.3 million buyer enquiries to agents since the election, up 15% on the same period a year ago. Some buyers are even further ahead and have snapped up a property already, with the number of sales agreed up by 7.4% on this time last year."
North London estate agent and former RICS residential chairman, Jeremey Leaf, said: "Although Rightmove looks at asking rather than selling prices, they provide an important indicator of market activity, not least because this survey has been around for such a long time.
"Asking prices can be notoriously unreliable but these confirm what we have been seeing on the ground for the last month or so. Sellers inevitably are a little bit more optimistic at this time of year but it remains to be seen, probably by the end of January/beginning of February, whether these higher prices, much of which is driven by shortage of stock, actually turn into agreed prices and transactions."
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