UK House Prices Rise To Record High: Rightmove

UK house prices increased to a record high in October as there were a record number of sales ever agreed in a month, and agents reported more properties marked as sold than available for sale, data released by the property website Rightmove revealed Monday.

Largely driven by pent-up demand, house price growth accelerated to 5.5 percent, the highest annual growth for over four years, from 5 percent in September. Average property prices rose to an all-time high of GBP 323,530.

On a monthly basis, house prices increased 1.1 percent in October, faster than the 0.2 percent rise logged in September.

The momentum caused by the combination of pent-up and new demand has led to new records in several key metrics, and as a result Rightmove forecasts house prices to rise further before the year-end and peak at around 7 percent.

"Many buyers seem willing to pay record prices for properties that fit their changed post-lockdown needs, though agents are commenting that some owners' price expectations are now getting too optimistic, and not all properties fit the must-have template that buyers are now seeking," Tim Bannister, Rightmove's Director of Property Data said.

Bannister cautioned that sellers and their agents should be wary of being too optimistic on their initial asking price, as whilst activity levels continue to amaze, there are some signs of momentum easing off from these unprecedented levels.

Data showed that the average time to sell was 50 days, which was 12 days faster than the same period last year. For the first time ever, estate agents have more properties marked as sold than they have as available for sale.

Finally, the number of sales reported by agents also set a new record, and was 70 percent higher than the same period a year ago.