National house prices have surged to their highest level since October 2003, according to Rightmove.
The portal’s latest house price index, out today, reveals that prices have increased 2.8% to £230,184 this month, up from £223,996 in September, due to the continued shortage in new instructions.
Just 16,808 properties were listed on Rightmove this month while 19,890 were removed.
Miles Shipside, commercial director for the portal, says: “It’s a little bit crazy to have a sellers’ market given the time of year and the warnings of imminent fiscal austerity by all the main political parties. Agents in the north as well as the south are reporting that quality properties are often selling within the week. Buyers are ready to pounce on new instructions and are willing to proceed as they believe prices have bottomed, and more are finding the ability to put down the larger deposits required to access the best mortgage deals."
On a regional basis, average asking prices in London rocketed 6.5% to £416,157, up from £390,768 in September and beating the portal’s previous record high of £412,731 in November 2007. In terms of instructions, just 17,000 new instructions in the capital were uploaded this month while 20,000 were removed.
Shipside adds: “Some agents are virtually ‘sold out’ and are reporting available stock levels in single figures. In this sort of market sellers quite naturally will be tempted to test buyer appetite at a higher figure. In addition, the onset of the autumn selling season offers a brief opportunity for estate agents to try to re-build their decimated stocks of property for sale before the new year.”
Separately, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has revealed that the number of completed sales recorded by members in September increased during the month to 18, while the average number of properties on their books remained flat at 64.
In terms of funding, the latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lending out this week reveal that gross mortgage lending, which encapsulates all mortgage lending activity including house purchase and remortgage, increased 2% to £12.5bn last month. The latest breakdown of CML mortgage data shows that mortgage volumes increased 29% in the year to August, though borrowing was down on July, both in terms of number (-5%) and value (-3%).
