Rightmove Publish ‘Stable’ Market

by Mark Johnston

Rightmove, the property website which advertises over 50% of the UK homes for sale is predicting a stable market for the rest of 2010.

Rightmove predict that any gains that have been made in the first half of the year may slowly be arroded by the end of 2010.Rightmove publishes its monthly House Price Index which uses data from its website to show the health of the UK property market. Some sources are critical of this as it is based on the listed prices of property and not the actual selling price. That said any data that shows trends on over 50% of the market is a good indicator on what is happening in the UK property market as a whole.

The lastest results show that the price of the average property in the UK fell by 0.6% from June to July. Rightmove’s average hosue price in the UK is £232,332 but this is heavily weighted towards the south of England where property prices are much higher than other areas of the United Kingdom. Supply is already outweighing demand and as a result, Rightmove are starting to see new sellers dropping their asking price for the first time this year. Over 30,000 new properties are coming onto the UK market every week which is a 45% increase from July last year (2009).

The property website is also tracking unsold property at 25% of the market where sleers out number new mortgage applications by 5:2. This position is now creating a buyers market where asking prices are starting to be forced down. This is looking like it will continue for the rest of the year. Good news by first time buyers but not for people wanting to sell their homes. Its not all doom and gloom though, if you’re not looking to move house than sit tight and enjoy your property, no need to worry about something that may never effect you. Many sellers might be forced to stay put and just live in their current houses, after all that’s what its there for.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said:

“The number of new mortgages being approved each month is less than half the number of new sellers, with the imbalance being exacerbated by the increase of nearly 50% in the number of properties coming to market compared to a year ago.

“More aggressive pricing is now the order of the day, which means that conditions are ripe for a strong buyers’ market in the second half of 2010.

“This is likely to see the average price gains of 7% for the first half of the year wiped out by year-end, in line with Rightmove’s original forecast for the year of no net change in house prices”.

Rightmoves index is in line with other more established house price indices like Mortgage providers Halifax and Nationwide who compile their indices using data from their Customers. Lets keep this in focus though, if you use the Land Registry’s House Price Index the average house price in the UK is £165,314 and they are tracking an annual increase of over 8%.

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