The Rightmove House Price Index for April reveals that the average asking price for a UK home is now £366,247, with annual growth slowing to 1.7%, down from 3% the previous month.
Monthly house price growth has also decelerated, reaching just 0.2% despite an 8% increase in buyer demand over the same period.
First-time buyers experienced a higher growth rate of 2%, taking the average asking price for a first-time buyer property to £224,963.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property science, said: “The current unexpectedly stable conditions may tempt more sellers to enter the market who had been considering a move in the last few years, but had been put off by its frenetic pace.”
He added that buyers should not wait too long to make an enquiry as “the number of sales agreed has returned to pre-pandemic levels and homes are selling twelve days faster on average than in 2019.”
Tomer Aboody, director of property lender MT Finance, noted that “high rents are persuading first-time buyers to commit to property purchases, taking advantage of lower mortgage rates and higher loan-to-value offerings from lenders.” This results in mortgage payments that are cheaper than renting, making it a sensible long-term move.
Regional areas are also performing well due to better affordability and lower pricing compared to urban centres, as remote work allows many buyers to live further from city centres.
Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and former RICS residential chairman, observed that “sales agreed may be down but asking prices are holding up.” He noted that “first-time buyers, in particular, are seizing the opportunity in increasing numbers to flex their muscles and get the best deals they can, in order to escape inexorably rising rents.”
“Encouragingly, lenders seem increasingly confident that the market will not suffer a serious correction as there are far more high loan-to-value mortgages available, suggesting that they don’t foresee a market collapse,” Leaf added.
