2020.07.2010:00:00UTC+00UK House Prices Increase In July: Rightmove

UK house prices increased in July suggesting that a mini-boom is gathering momentum, property website Rightmove said Monday.

Asking prices increased 3.7 percent year-on-year to GBP 312,625 in July. This was the highest rate since December 2016. Prices gained 2.4 percent from March pre-lockdown period.

About 44 percent of new listings that came up for sale in the first month after the English market opened on May 13 have already been marked as sale agreed, data revealed.

The number of monthly agreed sales was up 15 percent from last year. Further, in the five days after the stamp duty announcement it jumped to 35 percent up on the same days a year ago.

Further, buyer inquiries surged 75 percent from the same period last year.

"These figures are the earliest indicator of house price trends," Rightmove Director Miles Shipside said. They show on average prices gently rising not falling, and this will be reflected in the coming months in other house price reports.

"The unexpected mini-boom continues to gather momentum as more nations reopen," Shipside added.

The busy until interrupted spring market has now picked up where it left off and has been accelerated by both time-limited stamp duty holidays and by homeowners reappraising their homes and lifestyles because of the lockdown, Shipside noted. On July 8, Chancellor Rishi Sunak had raised the ceiling for attracting stamp duty exemption on housing transactions to GBP 500,000.