The 2022 property market has continued to set new milestones for price and activity levels with the price of property coming to the market hitting a new record high for the third consecutive month.
The high demand from a large number of buyers chasing too few properties for sale has led to a spring price frenzy and the largest price increase for a three-month period with prices up by 1.6 per cent (+£5,537) to £360,101 and £19,082 in the past three months.
In fact, flying in the face of the current cost of living squeeze, 53 per cent of properties are now selling at or over their final advertised asking price with properties achieving 98.9 per cent of the final advertised asking price on average – the highest levels ever seen by the researchers at Rightmove who conducted the research for their latest House Price Index.
Managing Director of Barrows and Forrester, James Forrester, commented: “Such sustained market conditions are quite phenomenal and as cliche as it sounds, there really never has been a better time to sell your house.
To say homes are selling like hotcakes would be an understatement and with multiple buyers battling it out for every last scrap of property stock, sellers are achieving above and beyond their original price expectations.”
Despite this record-breaking market news, the pace of price rises this year appears to be tailing off slightly as affordability constraints and economic headwinds combine. However, the researchers don’t anticipate this will lead to price falls because buyer demand continues to be high while stock is still limited.
With not enough property available on the market, sellers are able to find a buyer quicker than previously seen by the property portal. For example, this time in 2019, the average time to sell was 67 days. It now stands at an average of just 33 days before a property is marked as sold subject to contract on Rightmove. Of course, this is an average, and some popular properties are sold within days while others that are less desirable may still take months.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s Director of Property Data, commented: “Over 125,000 new sellers have taken advantage of the great sellers’ market this month, but more are needed in all areas and in all property sectors to meet high buyer demand.”
While there is growing economic uncertainty, our current market statistics show there is greater certainty that your property will sell more quickly than ever before, and likely at a record price.
Looking forward to the remainder of the year Bannister added: “It seems likely that the supply/demand mismatch will remain for at least the rest of this year. It can’t and won’t continue like this, but with the demand and supply imbalance being so out of kilter, it looks like any substantial slowdown will be gradual in coming and be a soft rather than hard landing.”
