17
Oct
Home sellers add more to their asking prices as sales values fall
Despite most house price indices showing that house prices have
gone down, asking prices on Rightmove have shot up by 2.8%.
The asking price on Rightmove for houses new to the market over
the last month now stands at £239,672.
The asking price average compares with £161,132 quoted by
Halifax for September and £166,256 quoted by Nationwide for
the same month. Both lenders base their average house prices on
mortgages agreed.
But there is a pronounced north/south divide in
Rightmove’s asking prices, with average property prices in
the south at £336,743 being more than double those in the
north, at £164,347.
The gulf is the highest Rightmove has ever recorded.
Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said: “While those
in the affluent south may have cause to celebrate their prices
being well up on this time last year, prices in the north continue
to go backwards, leaving the widest price gap ever.
“For the average asking price of a property in the south,
you could now buy two average properties in the north and still
have enough change left to buy new carpets and curtains.”
The average asking price in London is £450,210, which is
2.6% higher than the previous record set in June, while the
£317,055 in the south-east is 0.2% higher than the previous
record of May 2008.