Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau comments:
“The Rightmove House Price index provides a market snapshot from estate agents across the country, so offers an interesting insight into consumer behaviour. This month, it seems that four regions are outperforming the rest of the UK and in doing so, are having a positive impact on the national average asking price. Localised infrastructure and economic factors in the East Midlands, Wales, North West and Yorkshire have been driving the market in these areas for some months now. However, their stellar performance is now markedly different to other regions where asking prices are more circumspect due to lack of confidence and buyer demand.
“Given that London and the South East continue to see more challenging environments, the fact that Rightmove reports the total number of sales agreed for the first half of this year as only being 4.3% below the same period last year is potentially reassuring. This also supports other data sources which suggest that the market remains resilient overall, although clearly divergent in terms of buyer and seller confidence across the regions.
“Ultimately though, the complex current market dynamic is driven by varying levels of consumer sentiment, and one might suggest that those areas which are seeing more ambitious asking prices are somewhat insulated from the ongoing turbulence at Westminster – that or buyers and sellers in those areas are opting to ignore the headlines and carry on regardless, according to their personal circumstances.”