Rightmove says the dearth of sellers
and surge in buyers has led to record average prices across the UK and
especially in London.
A lack of sellers and a huge
surge in the number of people looking to buy a home has pushed the average
asking price of homes coming on to the market in April up to an all-time high
of just over £286,000, according to the country’s biggest property website.
The report from Rightmove further
highlights Britain’s housing crisis and comes in the wake of a series of
announcements by party leaders that have made property a key election theme.
March was the property portal’s
busiest ever month since its launch in 2000, with the number of people looking
at homes up 20% year-on-year. However, at the same time the number of new
sellers listing on the website was down 4% in the first three months of the
year compared with 2014.
“Record high housing demand and
an under-supply of homes have delivered a new all-time high in the price of
property coming to market in the month before the election,” said Miles
Shipside, a director at Rightmove.
“The high cost of housing is a
big concern for many home-hunters, so the contents of the respective party
manifestos and well thought-out sustainable solutions to the lack of affordable
housing supply will be high on many voters’ agendas too.”
Shipside said that the increase
in the average asking price in April, which is up 4.7% over the year, had been
driven by potential sellers hesitating to put their homes on the market and an
increase in the number of landlords buying properties as long-term investment
vehicles. Longer-term price increases have been driven by a shortage of
new-build homes.
“Failure to meet housebuilding
targets since the eighties, nineties and noughties to match forecast housing
demand has been a major factor in upwards price pressure both in the property
sales and private rented sectors,” he said. Across the country, asking prices
were up month-on-month in every region in April compared with March and were
only down annually in Wales.
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