Spring selling season hots up but house price growth is not matching up

By Isabelle Fraser

Property in Bristol is among the most in demand in the country, according to eMoov CREDIT: GETTY

The growth of asking prices for property has slowed to below average rates for this time of year, but the number of sales has surged as the spring selling season starts heating up.

Rightmove said that asking prices across the country were up 1.1pc in April, below the 1.6pc average, but that the number of agreed sales at this time of year was the highest since 2007. The annual rate of growth was 2.2pc, the lowest level in four years.


But the number of sales are up, 10pc higher than April last year. This is artificially higher because of the surge of landlords snapping up buy-to-let properties before the stamp duty hike at the start of last April, which resulted in a slump for the rest of the month.

The average asking price of a home in the UK has also hit a new record high, eclipsing the sum set in June 2016. It now sits at £313,655.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said: “It remains to be seen what effect the run-up to the snap election will have, though any slowdown in activity will be counter-balanced by the market’s current fast pace. Indeed, in locations where choice of suitable property is limited hesitation could mean losing out to others who still decide to act.”

It came as it was revealed that just two boroughs in London have seen demand increase for properties in the first quarter of 2017. Across the capital, buyer demand has been falling, except for in Harrow and Newham, according to online estate agency eMoov.


The lowest levels of demand were in the most expensive areas of the capital, such as City of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, where average prices have been falling as a result of higher levels of stamp duty.

EMoov said that there has been a general slowdown in demand across the country, which it calculated by looking at the balance between the supply and demand for housing stock in a given area.

The highest level of demand in the country was in Rugby, Portsmouth and Bristol.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/house-prices/spring-selling-season-hots-house-price-growth-not-matching/