Property Market Update

Welcome to our first property market update of 2022 – and the year is off to a flying start!

Read on for all the action from January and predictions for the year ahead….

House Prices

Nationally, the average asking price has risen 0.3% or by £850 to £341,000 compared to December 2021.

The figure is 7.6 per cent higher than a year ago, which makes it the highest annual rate of price growth since May 2016, as logged by Rightmove.

Forecasts predict that prices will continue to rise this coming year, and the house price rally will likely last another 5 years. By 2026, average prices are expected to rise by 13 percent.

Property data director at Rightmove, Tim Bannister, said: ‘All of the signs suggest that prices are likely to continue to rise until more choice is available.’

Interestingly, London saw the slowest regional growth, with a 5.1% annual increase.

Data from the Land Registry suggests detached homes are becoming more expensive than other kinds of property.

In England, the price on average of a detached home went up 13.8% in a year, while in Wales an average 15.3% increase was noted. By comparison, the price of flats grew more slowly – going up by 5.1% in England and by 6.9% in Wales.

Valuations

Sellers were straight out of the gate as we all returned to work on 4th January, clocking up the 5th highest number of valuation requests in a single day, ever recorded. This impressive total was a 44% jump from January 2021 and up 48% from January 2020.

It is also extremely important to get the right price for your property, given the high demand from buyers. Contact Us for a valuation.

Buyers

There was a 15 per cent increase from last year in the number of buyers inquiring about homes and Bannister believes they will benefit from the January valuations jump, as long as they are patient.

‘While this potential new supply will take a little while to appear on the market, it’s an encouraging sign of more choice for buyers in the coming months,’ he said.

‘The speed at which we’ve seen the fresh choice being snapped up by eager buyers over the past 18 months is a reminder to buyers to move fast and book a viewing with the estate agent as soon as a property that you like comes to market.’

We couldn’t agree more – get your dream property viewing booked in with us today!