Asking prices edge higher but demand falls

Published 19th May 2010

Asking prices edged up by 0.7 per cent in the four weeks to May 8, despite a fall in demand from buyers, according to new figures from Rightmove.com, the property website.

The group reported its highest number of new listings for two years in the last full week before the election as the political uncertainty failed to put off sellers.

Despite this, the company said that there now appeared to be fewer people who were either looking to move home or could get a mortgage to do so.

As a result, it said it had seen a “substantial jump” in the number of unsold properties estate agents had on their books, with this rising from an average of 68 to 71 during the month.

The rise in asking prices, which took the average price to £237,134, was well down on the jump of 2.4 per cent recorded during the same month last year.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: “While sellers don’t appear to be put off, the rising levels of unsold stock indicate that buyers are not as willing or as able to act upon their pent-up moving desires.”

He added: “We forecast that prices in 2010 would end up broadly flat, with gains in the first half of the year falling away in the second half.

“This pattern seems to be emerging as supply begins to outstrip demand in the less desirable locations."

Yorkshire and Humberside saw the biggest price gain during the month at 3.5 per cent, followed by the South East at 2.1 per cent.

At the other end of the scale, prices fell by 1.5 per cent in the North and by 1.1 per cent and 1 per cent in the East Midlands and North West respectively.

In other figures released today, mortgage lending increased by 45 per cent year on year in March, making it the ninth consecutive month of year-on-year growth, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders

Source: ' Times '

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