Confidence returns to housing market, says Rightmove
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An increase in house prices during the early part of 2010 shows confidence is returning to the housing sector, says Righmove.
Its latest house price index shows that the average house price in January was £222,261, up 0.4 per cent on December, and up 4.1 per cent year-on-year.
In the first week of January asking price rebound was up 1.2 per cent to £2,698, compared to falls of 0.9 per cent the previous week.
The property website also recorded its busiest week in terms of online traffic, with 157,402,812 pages viewed between January 4 to January 10, up 26 per cent on the first working week of 2009.
Rightmove commercial director Miles Shipside says: “This rise in asking prices is an early indicator that new sellers in 2010 have the confidence to try for a higher price, as the index was lined up for a fall until the turn of the year.
“We were expecting a drop of about 1 per cent, as the majority of this month’s index falls in December, but the optimism of those early January sellers flipped it around.”
Shipside adds: “In spite of problems brewing for later in the year, there are definitely some of the ingredients for a buoyant spring, and a window of opportunity that sellers may wish to take advantage of.”
But he estmiates that the market is now seeing the lowest number of properties on the market this century.
He says: “At present the limited supply of sellers is being outstripped by buyer demand but we predict there will be more forced selling later in the year.”
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