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

LONDON, June 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

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 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 - http://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/house-price-index. To calculate your mortgage repayments visit our mortgage calculator

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