First Half Gains in UK Asking Prices Set to ebb Away in Second Half of the Year

LONDON, June 20, 2011 -

The Rightmove House Price Index for June 2011 is released today
and reveals that average UK asking prices for new properties coming
to the market saw a 0.6% increase over the past month to now stand
at £240,394.

June sees Rightmove record the sixth consecutive monthly rise in
new sellers’ average asking prices, up by £1,520 in the past month
(0.6%). At the halfway point of 2011 asking price statistics are
following a very similar pattern to last year, with overall gains
of 8.1% this year compared to 7.4% in the first half of 2010. With
similar market conditions we predict that the second half of 2011
will continue to mirror 2010. Rightmove therefore forecasts that
new sellers’ prices will fall by up to 7% in the next six months as
underlying market weakness again checks the impetus normally seen
in the first half of the year.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove comments: “2011 looks like
a case of déjà vu, with the tide of housing needs yet again failing
to breach the levée of restricted mortgage funding. As the seasonal
surge in demand begins to fall back, new sellers’ asking prices
will also have to ebb away. With mortgage approvals stuck at half
the normal level, the number of sellers who can find a buyer is
likely to be reduced by a similar proportion.”

Unsold stock per branch was an average of 69 at the beginning of
the year and has risen every month since, with each href="www.rightmove.co.uk/estate-agents.html">estate
agency branch now parading an average of 78 properties. This
increase in stock levels gives more bargaining power to potential
buyers.

Shipside comments: “Increasing stock levels are a clear
indication of buyer appetite failing to keep pace with the number
of sellers who are showing some hunger to sell. However, with most
sellers able to take their time and wait for an offer that matches
their expectations, we are seeing the highest ever asking prices
for the month of June. High levels of unsold stock and record
asking prices cannot remain happy bedfellows for long, so we expect
to see this romp away from reality to reverse itself in the second
half of the year as the over-supply of property and under-supply of
mortgages reassert themselves and exert downwards price
pressure.”

For further statistics and to download the Rightmove June 2011
House Price Index please visit -
www.rightmove.co.uk/news/house-price-index. To calculate
your mortgage repayments visit our href="www.rightmove.co.uk/mortgage-calculator.html">mortgage
calculator

Rightmove Press Office, press@rightmove.co.uk,
+44(0)207-087-0700

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