New seller numbers are up 2% on last year - the highest weekly run-rate over this period for several years. However, the supply of property coming to market is still failing to replenish agents’ stock for sale. Stock has fallen by 10% compared to the same period in 2014, creating upwards price pressure in popular areas, contributing to the 1.4% month-on-month asking price rise.
Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst, comments:
“Early 2015 statistics currently point in the right direction for home-movers, with the Chancellor’s early Stamp Duty Christmas present perhaps being the spur for people making New Year resolutions to get on with moving. There are more positive signs of early-bird activity rather than pre-election jitters or economic worries deterring prospective movers. However, we are only a few days into the year and it remains to be seen whether this initial flurry is sustained.”
“The unseasonably high 1.4% jump in new sellers’ asking prices suggests that there are more rises in the pipeline for the next few months. Early-bird buyers, including trader-uppers, can potentially catch a good deal by getting off the mark quickly in 2015, and get a better pick of the housing crop.”
These early indicators of increased property interest, combined with estate agents reporting low stocks of appealing property in popular locations, should give encouragement to prospective sellers. However, Rightmove still cautions sellers that it will be harder to sell in 2015 than in 2014. Election jitters could lower the number of property transactions rather than lower prices, resulting in a moderate reduction from the high volumes seen in 2014, but with average prices driven up by the more resilient activity in popular locations.
2015 is therefore predicted to be the ‘Year of the Selective Mover’ – firstly because lenders have selected them as a good risk to lend to, and second because they will be very selective about which properties they choose. With insufficient new build over the last few decades and a systemic change in the make-up of our current housing stock, buyers are dissatisfied with, and therefore dismissive of, some of what is up for sale.
With the average first-time buyer property coming to the market at £163,251, the reform to Stamp Duty announced in the Autumn Statement could mean potential savings of up to £1,250.
Shipside observes:
“Should prices rise, as they look set to over the next few months, potential Stamp Duty savings will diminish, but they will still be helpful to first-time buyers struggling to save enough to cover the Stamp Duty bill as well as the mortgage deposit. First-time buyers are in a potential win-win savings window this month with the price of property coming to market in this sector being over £1,100 cheaper, coupled with up to £1,250 in Stamp Duty savings. This is a welcome boost given that the price of property coming to market in the first-time buyer sector has increased by 10.5% in the last year.”
Jeremy Duncombe, Director, Legal & General Mortgage Club, said:
"As we enter the New Year, house prices have risen by 1.4% according to Rightmove. Demand for housing is still outstripping supply, and as such we need to be building more houses to enable the market to grow in a sustainable way. With increasing demand pushing up prices, the lack of housing supply is making it harder for first time buyers to enter the market. In the run up to the election, the need to build more homes should be at the top of the political agenda. More houses would keep supply more in line with demand and stop prices rising out of the reach of large swathes of the UK population."
