House price watch

Your home may well be one of your major assets. Even if you are not planning on moving in the near future, it is always a good idea to keep abreast of the latest changes in the housing market.

Below is the latest comparison of three major national house price indexes to keep you in touch with where the market is heading. Please note that there will also be regional variations.

You can see below that some of the house price data is still erratic. Rightmove did not prepare data for April 2020. There is still a sense that the housing market is nowhere near 'normal' and that any increase in figures now might be due to the pent up demand crated by three months of lockdown.

Commentators are suggesting that the real test will come later in the year when the furlough scheme ends - this may have a significant impact on unemployment and market confidence.

In its most recent report Rightmove say:

• Average asking price of property coming to market in England up by an average of 1.9% (+£6,266), compared to March before the housing market was put on hold
• Over 175,000 missing sellers that couldn't come to market from 24th March to 12th May, but they've sprung into action with record number of owners asking for valuations and daily new listings now up on last year
• Number of sales agreed recovers from a 94% drop to latest daily rate of just 3% down on a year ago:
  • 40,000 new sales agreed since market re-opened on 13th May, releasing flood of pent-up demand
  • Unique price analysis of new sales agreed indicates upwards price pressure with buyers agreeing to pay 97.7% of the asking price on average, an improvement from 96.6% for sales completed in February
  • Number of people phoning and emailing estate agents hits new daily record, 40% above the level seen in early March
• Delayed spring market leads to traffic boom with Rightmove recording its 10 busiest ever days in May and June, with home-movers spending over 955,000 hours collectively on 6th June, as England gets moving.