One of the most widely respected market reports has been released with updated figures showing 4 key factors for home buyers and sellers to consider.
Rightmove’s latest House Price Index highlights the following:
- Property prices on the rise - after three consecutive monthly falls the average price of property coming to market increases by 0.5% (+£1,522) this month, as upwards price pressure resumes
- Purchases from last year still not completed - one in five buyers who agreed a purchase in July 2020 have STILL not completed more than six months later, with an estimated 100,000 buyers in total still likely to miss out on their expected tax saving
- Growth in new buyers - number of new buyers continues to grow despite it now being too late for most to beat stamp duty deadline
- Drop in new sellers - high demand is outstripping supply and pushing up prices: new seller numbers are 21% down on prior year as owners of family homes delay coming to market.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s Director of Property Data comments:
“Last year the market was unexpectedly buoyed by buyers’ determination to move and satisfy their new lockdown-induced housing needs. We may well be seeing a continuation of that this year.
“Rightmove’s early 2021 buyer data shows that despite the imminent end of the stamp duty incentive, all of the key buyer metrics are ahead of early 2020, itself an active period as the market was boosted by the post-election ‘Boris bounce’.”
Rob Brookes, Managing Director of Mortgage Advice Bureau - Severn Mortgage and Protect says:
“Rightmove estimates that there are around 100,000 buyers who agreed a purchase before Christmas but will fail to complete by the stamp duty deadline, even though reports over the weekend suggested chancellor Rishi Sunak was considering a six-week extension. This has left a lot of buyers uncertain of their moving costs, we’ve been advising our clients since before Christmas that the best thing to do is “to hope for the best but prepare for the worst” by starting to budget for a possible stamp duty liability if you miss the 31st March deadline.”
“The idea is to allow purchases to complete and avoid thousands of cases collapsing, however, conveyancer O’Neill Patient suggests it will provide little practical assistance to the industry to aid completions.
“If the government does extend by the mooted six weeks, we won’t know this until into March and, therefore, this does little to help the impending deadline and merely adds newer buyers into the race to beat the cut-off,” it said.
“The holiday was introduced to stimulate the market after the first Covid-19 lockdown last year and it has certainly achieved its aim, with the unexpected consequences.
“With the huge number of house sales going through the system, the industry is struggling to cope with this unprecedented demand,” it added.