"Early-bird sellers benefit from busiest ever start to a New Year" - Rightmove House Price Index
The Rightmove monthly House Price Index provides the latest insight into asking price trends based on the largest sample size of properties in the UK.
The average price of property coming to market jumps by 0.3% this month (+£852) to £341,019, which is 7.6% higher than in January 2021, the highest annual rate of price growth recorded by Rightmove since May 2016
First-time buyer asking prices hit a new record of £214,176 after a monthly jump of 1.4%
Strong demand and continuing low numbers of available homes for sale set up the housing market frenzy to continue into the start of 2022, with early-bird sellers benefitting from increased buyer competition:
The number of buyers enquiring about homes is 15% higher than the same time last year
The number of available homes for sale per estate agency branch drops again to a new record low of just 12
As a result, competition among buyers is almost double what it was at this time last year
However, there are early signs that more property choice is on its way, with the first working week of 2022 being the busiest start of the year ever for people requesting agents to come out and value their homes:
The number of home valuation requests in the first working week of 2022 is 44% up on the same period last year, and 48% up on the same period in 2020
To view the latest Rightmove House Price Index, please click here