UK House Prices Start Year With Slip Amid Stamp Duty Dash - Rightmove

(Alliance News) - Average UK house prices eased monthly in January, according to numbers on ...

Alliance News 18 January, 2021 | 5:01AM
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(Alliance News) - Average UK house prices eased monthly in January, according to numbers on Monday, with buyers desperately racing to beat the stamp duty deadline.

According to property listing platform Rightmove, the average price of new properties coming to market declined 0.9% to GBP317,058 in January from GBP319,945 at the end of 2020.

Annually, house prices climbed 3.3% in January, though growth slowed from 6.6% in December.

Some new sellers cut prices "hoping to tempt" buyers into sealing a sale before the UK stamp duty holiday ends in March, but Rightmove said new buyers are unlikely to complete a deal in time.

Back in July, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the threshold for stamp duty would be temporarily raised to GBP500,000 from GBP125,000 until March 31, 2021.

"Housing market activity in the first few weeks of January often sets the tone for the whole year, though the 2021 outlook is somewhat muddied by the challenges of the pandemic and by the 31st March stamp duty holiday deadline. However, two main things stand out. Firstly, sellers who have come to the market in the period covered by this report are continuing to price very competitively, with some perhaps still hoping to find a buyer and complete before the tax-saving cut-off, though the odds are now against them," Rightmove said.

"Secondly, buyer activity has continued to exceed the same period a year ago, even though 2020 also had a very active start, being buoyed by the post-election 'Boris bounce'."

The post-election house price climb ended abruptly last year when the Covid-19 pandemic closed off the housing sector in March. But what followed in the summer and thereafter was a "far stronger resurgence", with UK house prices notching record highs.

Rightmove added that visits to its site are up 33% annually so far in January, with the number of would-be buyers contacting agents rising 12% and the number of agreed sales up 9%.

Rightmove's Director of Property Data Tim Bannister said: "As we enter the new year and a new lockdown, the housing market remains open but is focused on the imminent end of the stamp duty holiday and on the challenges of the pandemic. These major influences on mover behaviour are clouding the 2021 outlook, but Rightmove's early January market-leading indicators of buyer demand and the number of actual sales being agreed are looking robust, showing that there are many compelling reasons other than the stamp duty savings to make buyers enter the market in 2021."

By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

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