21st March 2016
£300k asking price milestone passed in England and Wales for first time
The average asking price of a property coming onto the market in England and Wales has passed the £300,000 mark for the first time according to Rightmove. The milestone comes just ten years after the average asking price passed the £200,000 mark – that’s a 50% increase in a decade.
But the property portal says the rise is, for once, not being driven by central London, where prices have levelled out in recent months. Instead it’s being put down to the healthy regional property market, where six out of ten regions – particularly in the north – have seen significant price rises.
However the average wage growth – 22% over the last ten years – is not keeping pace with house price inflation. Although this is not halting demand for property, with visits to Rightmove up by 14% in early March, compared to the same period in 2015.
Rightmove director Miles Shipside also reported this morning that new asking prices rose 1.3% compared with February – the second highest monthly jump at this time of year. Although new asking prices across London have barely moved month-on-month, the average asking price in the capital is £644,045 – an annual increase of 11%.
On average 30,000 properties have come to market each week over the past month – up by 3% on this time last year. The average time to sell last month was 68 days, down from 79 in the same month last year. In London, average time on the market is 47 days, shorter than at any time last year.
