UK House Prices Rise Most Since 2020: Rightmove

(RTTNews) - UK house prices increased the most since 2020 and new sellers coming to the market hit a record in January, data from the property website Rightmove showed on Monday.

Average house prices increased 1.7 percent in January from a month ago, marking the largest jump in prices at the start of the year since 2020. This follows a 1.7 percent fall in December.

On a yearly basis, growth in house prices increased to 1.8 percent in January from 1.4 percent in December.

The choice of buyers hit the highest since 2015 as a record number of early-bird new sellers came to the market since Boxing Day, Rightmove said. Properties coming to the market were 11 percent more than in the same period last year.

"We've also seen a strong start to the year in new seller asking prices, though given the higher-than-anticipated seller competition, we would expect this to slow down over the next few months," Rightmove property expert Colleen Babcock said. Rightmove forecasts a larger number of transactions this year of 1.15 million, and an average asking price increase of 4 percent.

"Despite many positive activity metrics when compared with last year, there are uncertainties ahead, including the pace and number of future interest rate drops and the impact of increased stamp duty for many home-movers from 1st April," Babcock cautioned.

Matt Smith, mortgage expert at Rightmove said news of high government borrowing costs was swiftly followed by better-than-expected inflation figures, highlight how quickly the mood can change.

"The markets are still banking on a cut in February, but after that it becomes uncertain," Smith added. "I think we'll need to get settled into the year a little more before the direction of travel for rates this year becomes clearer," said Smith.

In December, the Bank of England had retained its benchmark Bank Rate at 4.75 percent. The bank had reduced the rate by a quarter-point in August and November.