UK house prices show weak rise in April

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Asking prices for property being put on sale in the UK over the past month rose less than normal for the time of year, figures from property website Rightmove showed, adding to signs of more subdued momentum in the property market.

Rightmove said that average asking prices were up by 0.2 percent over the month, less than the average 1.2 percent gain seen at this time of year. Compared with a year earlier, asking prices were 1.7 percent higher, down from a three percent annual increase a month earlier.

“Agents are reporting that many sellers have transitioned out of the frenzied multi-bid market mindset of recent years and understand the new need to tempt spring buyers with a competitive price,” said Rightmove director Tim Bannister.

After an initial slump at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, house prices surged in the UK and many other Western countries, bolstered by rock-bottom interest rates, a desire for more living space during lockdown and in Britain’s case, tax incentives for house purchases.

That trend went into reverse in Britain in the second half of last year, as the Bank of England began to raise interest rates sharply and then prime minister Liz Truss’s government caused temporary turmoil on bond markets, disrupting mortgage issuance.

Rightmove said transaction volumes were now back to around the level they were before the start of the pandemic.

The average asking price for a home advertised on Rightmove between March 12 and April 15 was £366,247 ($455,245) – below their peak in October last year – although prices for smaller homes favoured by first-time buyers hit a new record of £224,963.

The most recent official data, for sales which completed in February, showed that prices were 5.5 percent higher than a year earlier at £288,000, but around two percent down from their peak in November 2022.