Busiest-ever housing market for sellers and buyers

Properties are selling at the fastest pace ever recorded, which is pushing up average asking prices for properties.

Rightmove has recently seen 9.3 million a single day, while last month home-hunters spent more than two billion minutes on our site.

More properties have sold within the space of a week than ever before. Even 145,000 new property listings this month has not been enough to meet the high levels of buyer demand that we are seeing.

Why is the property market so busy?

Growing optimism due to the Coronavirus vaccination roll-out, the return of low-deposit mortgages and the stamp duty holiday extension are all reasons for home-hunters to seek a fresh start in fresh surroundings.

While this shows us that the volume of new property listings is returning back to normal levels, buyers have had a lot less to choose from as the traditional spring home-moving season began.

In contrast, the number of sales agreed is up by 55% on the same period two years ago, which means the proportion of available property is at its lowest ever recorded by Rightmove.

Sophie Weston, Director at 123estateAgents, agrees. She says: “This is the biggest lack of stock I have seen on the market for many years. Demand is huge, created by a perfect storm of low interest rates, the stamp duty holiday and changes in people’s working patterns. The dreary five-day-a-week commute for many is now over and this has led to areas outside of London becoming some of the most in-demand. In most cases we have sold our mid range houses for sale in a matter of days.

This means that buyers are now facing the highest-ever average asking prices from sellers.

Why are asking prices rising?

The combination of strong demand from buyers ready to move, coupled with the current shortage of property for sale, is pushing asking prices up.

The national average price of property coming to market has risen by £6,733 within a month, hitting an all-time high of £327,797. This is more than £4,000 higher than the previous record set in October last year. Search Sold Property Prices

Yet despite the price jumps, buyers don’t seem deterred. This is now the fastest-selling market that Rightmove has measured since our records began.

How long is it taking to sell a home?

Properties sold within an average of just 45 days in the first two weeks of April, which is faster than we have ever recorded at Rightmove.

Almost one in four (23%) properties that had a sale agreed in March had been on the market for less than a week.

Across Britain, Scotland is the fastest place in which to sell a home, with properties selling in just 33 days on average, followed by 47 days in the North West and 48 days in the West Midlands and Yorks & Humber regions.

With an average time to sell of 64 days, London is currently the slowest region for property sales.

Which properties are selling the fastest?

Two- and three-bedroom semi-detached homes are being snapped up quickest, with 30% of those selling within just a week of being on the market. However, buyers who are in a position to move are competing for all types of properties across a range of price levels.

What does a busy housing market mean for home sellers?
If you’ve been holding off to see what will happen in the housing market, then now is a great time to sell.

What does it mean for buyers?

It’s a really positive sign to see more property listings coming to market this month to help with the shortfall. With the vaccine roll-out progressing and continued strong demand from buyers, we should see more sellers putting their homes on the market over the coming months.

Keep in mind that if you’re looking to buy in the current market and you do manage to find the right property, you will need to be ready to move more quickly than ever before.

“Having both a mortgage agreed in principle and your own property already sold subject to contract will help to get you to the front of the queue if you’re looking to buy this spring,” says Tim Bannister.

What is the outlook for the year ahead?

We are yet to see the impact of the challenging economic conditions created by coronavirus restrictions. Government assistance will begin to wind down for many later this year and the stamp duty holiday is due to come to an end in England and Wales from 1st October.

Nevertheless, we expect this level of demand to remain for the rest of 2021.

Tim Bannister adds: “Housing market activity remains high in Scotland where there has been no extension to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax holiday, which has now come to an end. This suggests that the same could happen when the tax holidays start to come to an end in England and Wales from the end of June.”

See Rightmove house Prices for Bromley