Home Asking Price Index, April 2023: firmly on the road to recovery
Asking prices in England and Wales rose 0.2% in March, though annual growth turned negative at -0.3%, while Typical Time on Market fell to 77 days.
This is the April 2023 edition of the Home Asking Price Index, released on 14 April 2023, under the headline:
Firmly on the Road to Recovery
The headlines and summary below are the report's own words, with the key figures as it published them, followed by the report's charts and regional tables as printed.
Headlines
- The Typical Time on Market for unsold property in England and Wales plummeted by 18 days during March to make the median 77 days, indicating a dramatic uptick in market momentum.
- Asking prices in March rose in Scotland, Wales and all English regions except Greater London where prices slipped 0.3%.
- The total sales stock count for England and Wales increased during March by 15,844 to reach 388,482, although the total remains well below the 10-year average of 420,297.
- London shows a remarkable drop in Typical Time on Market from 106 to 90 days during March.
- The Scottish property market is the new leader in terms of annualised regional price growth (6.8%), having posted a huge monthly increase of 2.3%.
- Rents across Greater London continue to rise, up 19.6% year-on-year. Scarcity remains a persistent problem although supply is now slowly rising from a record low.
- The current new growth leaders in asking rents are the London boroughs of Ealing and Kensington and Chelsea (+33% and +31% annualised respectively).
Summary
This regional performance is also reflected in the median time on market for unsold property: the North of England, Wales and Scotland show vast improvement on their 2018 marketing times while the remaining regions remain comparatively sluggish.
All the vital signs of the UK property market confirm a return to strength. The combination of cautiously rising prices, dramatically lower marketing times and a restrained supply of properties for sale confirms that the market has adapted to a rise in mortgage interest rates and buyer confidence has returned. Consequently, nominal price falls appear highly unlikely in the near term, contrary to the recent gloomy predictions in the property media.
Key figures
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Monthly asking price change (March) | +0.2% |
| Annual asking price change | -0.3% |
| Annualised price growth, April 2022 | 6.4% |
| Typical Time on Market | 77 days |
| Total unsold stock | 388,482 |
| New instructions change (year-on-year) | -2% |
| Monthly increase in stock | +15,844 |
Figures are for England and Wales unless the report states otherwise, as published in the edition.
Charts from the report
Source: Home.co.uk Asking Price Index, April 2023, Indexed to May 2004 (Value=100).
Source: Home.co.uk Asking Price Index, April 2023
Source: Home.co.uk Asking Price Index, April 2023
Source: Home.co.uk Asking Price Index, April 2023
Source: Home.co.uk Asking Price Index, April 2023 and ONS [RPI ex. housing]. Inflation for April and March are our estimates.
Source: Home.co.uk Asking Price Index, April 2023
Source: Home.co.uk Asking Price Index, April 2023. Average = Mean (days), Typical = Median (days).
Regional tables
UK Asking Prices, Apr-23
| Region | Average Asking Price | Monthly % change | Annual % change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | £222,760 | 2.3% | 6.8% |
| North East | £190,598 | 1.3% | 4.4% |
| Yorks & The Humber | £245,185 | 0.8% | 3.8% |
| England & Wales | £351,848 | 0.2% | -0.3% |
| North West | £257,762 | 0.3% | 3.8% |
| West Midlands | £298,790 | 0.4% | 0.5% |
| East Midlands | £284,239 | 0.1% | 0.8% |
| East | £398,293 | 0.2% | -1.9% |
| Wales | £259,959 | 0.8% | 2.6% |
| Greater London | £540,582 | -0.3% | -2.5% |
| South East | £440,324 | 0.3% | -2.6% |
| South West | £379,032 | 0.4% | 0.1% |
UK Time on Market, Apr-23
| Region | Average Time on Market | Typical Time on Market | Annualised % supply change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 208 | 78 | -7% |
| North East | 151 | 74 | -18% |
| Yorks & The Humber | 131 | 71 | 0% |
| England & Wales | 154 | 77 | -2% |
| North West | 149 | 75 | -1% |
| West Midlands | 143 | 72 | -1% |
| East Midlands | 129 | 71 | -1% |
| East | 136 | 70 | 1% |
| Wales | 158 | 96 | 3% |
| Greater London | 191 | 90 | -8% |
| South East | 143 | 70 | 1% |
| South West | 138 | 70 | 3% |
From the director's commentary
"The fact is that home prices adapted quickly to rising borrowing costs and that haircut has reinvigorated demand. Confidence has returned and the fact that fixed-rate mortgages are available at below the current BoE base rate shows that a rate cut is already expected."
Doug Shephard, Director at Home.co.uk
Read the full April 2023 edition (PDF, 9 pages)
About the Home Asking Price Index
The Home Asking Price Index measures the change in the prices sellers ask for residential property across England, Wales and Scotland. Today it is computed every month from around half a million advertised homes and is mix-adjusted, so a change in what happens to be on the market does not move the figure; earlier editions state the sample they were built from. Because an asking price is set months before a sale completes, the index runs around five months ahead of completed-sale measures such as the UK House Price Index.
Every edition in the archive, back to October 2006, is listed on the index page. How we measure the UK property market explains the listing data behind it, and today's figures by area are on house prices and rental prices.
Text and figures above are quoted from the April 2023 edition as published, with punctuation normalised for the web, and are not revised. Later editions may restate them.
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