UK Property Asking Prices At New High, Rightmove Says

23:25, 17th June 2012

(RTTNews) - Asking prices for a property in the United Kingdom rose to a new record high in June buoyed by strong price movements in London and South East, property website Rightmove said on Monday.

Prices of new property coming to market was GBP 246,235, a third consecutive national record. This was 1 percent higher than a month earlier and 2.4 percent above last years' level.

Strong rises in the south of the country have helped to push the national average asking price into new record territory, Rightmove Director Miles Shipside said.

The report, meanwhile, observed that sellers' prices are now 2 percent up on August 2007, the month before the UK economy faced the run on Northern Rock. They have fallen considerably in real terms when compared to retail price inflation over the same period.

London is the only inflation-proof hedge seeing average asking prices 3 percent ahead of the retail price index since August 2007. London and South East regions saw new asking price records in June.

"In these uncertain economic times, lenders feel safer to lend to those with a cash-cushion, and those sitting on that cash often feel more comfortable with it invested in tangible assets, including bricks and mortar," Shipside said.

June saw a weekly run-rate of 29,394 new sellers in the three weeks prior to the disruption of the Diamond Jubilee break. This was the highest new listing run-rate recorded for two years.

Rightmove said this suggested that further increases in asking prices are unlikely as fresh supply exceeds summer demand.

A report from the Nationwide Building Society showed last month that the U.K. house prices rose 0.3 percent from a month earlier in May, while demand remained subdued. Lloyds Banking Group's Halifax division said prices increased 0.5 percent in May.

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