Prices sought rose 2.1 percent from March to an average 244,706 pounds ($376,000), the property-website operator said in a report published today. In London, they fell 0.5 percent. U.K. asking prices increased 6.9 percent in the first four months of the year and were 0.4 percent higher than a year earlier.
The scarcity of homes on the market is supporting prices and masking the weakness of demand in many areas as Britain risks falling into a third recession in five years. In his budget last month, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne pledged 3.5 billion pounds of loans plus 130 billion pounds of guarantees to spur housebuilding and help people struggling to afford a home.
“With mass-market buyers still sitting on the sidelines, the size of the active market is a lot smaller, making it easier for an upswing in activity to feed through to an upturn in prices,” said Miles Shipside, director at Rightmove. “This should not be confused with an overall market recovery, as while spring may be here the ongoing chill of the recession is still in the air.”
The number of properties advertised for sale nationwide fell 4 percent from a year ago, the report showed.
Sellers in East Anglia led the increase by raising asking prices by 4.4 percent in April, followed by 3.9 percent gains in Wales and Southwest England, Rightmove said. In London, sellers reduced average values sought for the first time this year to 493,635 pounds, though prices remained 6.2 percent higher than a year ago.
Recent house-price data have been mixed, with Nationwide Building Society saying in a March 28 report that the outlook for home values was “unusually uncertain.” Halifax, the mortgage unit of Lloyds Banking Group Plc, said last week that prices may continue on a “modest” upward trend this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment