Positive start to 2023 for property market?

The housing market has seen a positive start to 2023 according to recent research from Rightmove and TwentyCi.

Rightmove’s latest price index showed the average asking price for a property jumped 0.9% in January, up £3,301 from the month before.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed house prices were up 10.2% in the year to November.

There are 472,341 properties currently on the market across the UK, according to TwentyCi. While there are 376,518 homes sold subject to contract (SSTC) and 269,404 property sales were completed during the past three months.

‘The year has kicked off with good news’

Phillip Farrell, CCO and Co-founder of property technology platform Offr, said: “Whilst the property market faces some challenges in 2023, the year has kicked off with good news, despite all the doom and gloom in the media.

“Industry experts are warning that property prices will continue to drop, but the jury is out on how much.  Despite rising interest rates and the cost of living, home mover confidence is proving positive.”

The South-East continues to be the busiest with 74,971 new instructions during January, followed by Inner London with 54,332 and the North West with 50,515 new listings. The region with the least number of properties coming onto the market is Northern Ireland with 8,529 new instructions, followed by the North East, which had 16,868.

The South-East also currently has the most properties listed as SSTC, with 63,035, followed by 42,353 in the East of England and 41,305 in the South-West.  Northern Ireland saw the least activity, with 11,314 properties listed as SSTC.

The most completions took place in the South-East, with 43,455. This was followed by the East of England, which had 28,819 completions and the North-West, with 28,424 completions.

‘Inflation likely to have peaked’

Following the announcement from the Bank of England of the base rate rise. The Bank said that inflation “is likely to have peaked” and a recession would be less severe than previously predicted.

Mr Farrell said: “The Bank of England’s recent announcement that inflation may have peaked and a recession in the UK would be shorter and shallower than previously feared. In the short term, sellers will be forced to drop asking prices. Zoopla’s recent research shows that sellers are having to discount the prices of their homes of between 3% and 4% to reach a sale.”

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