The online property portal’s most recent figures showed that average asking prices rose by 0.8% (£3,023 in March), which is a typical increase for the busy spring season.
The number of sales being agreed was only 2% behind the market last year, which was particularly strong, and 5% ahead of a weaker 2024.
Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said: “’Steady rather than strong’ is how I’d describe the start of this year’s spring market.”
Nathan Emerson, CEO of industry body for property agent Propertymark, said agents were reporting an encouraging start to the year, with a “sense of resilience”.
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Record number of homes for sale
Property price rises are being checked by the large number of homes available on the market, with the number of homes for sale at an 11-year high for the time of year.
This is driven by a number of factors, including a rush by landlords to sell up to beat tax and regulatory changes.
Adam Horton, founder of Hortons Estate Agency, said that with supply relatively high, “new sellers need to be disciplined on pricing from day one – overpriced stock is simply being overlooked”.
North/South divide
Property experts also said they are seeing a clear ‘North/South divide’ when it comes to price growth.
The North of England, Scotland and Wales are seeing stronger annual price growth, with the North West seeing 2.6% annual price growth compared with a 2.1% fall in London.
Tomer Aboody, director of specialist lender MT Finance, said this is due to affordability.
“In the more expensive South, price growth is more muted as buyers face more of a struggle in raising the necessary deposit and demonstrating enough income to satisfy lenders,” he added.
Smaller homes suffer
The figures also show that buyers are bypassing ‘starter’ homes, with smaller 1-2-bedroom properties falling in price by an average of 0.4% nationally over the past year. Slightly larger ‘second-stepper’ homes are up by 0.6% and much larger homes have seen prices remain the same.
“Slight price falls for typical first homes may provide a window of opportunity for deposit-ready first-time buyers this spring, though saving up a deposit remains a challenge when average rents are near record levels and cost-of-living pressures persist,” said Emerson.
How war might change the game
Rightmove said it is still too early to assess what the full impact of the current war in Iran might be on the mortgage market. However, it has not seen the same kind of immediate and sharp response from movers that there was to previous events, such as stamp duty changes or the rapid mortgage rate rises in September 2022.
Estate agent Adam Horton said there may be a particular impact on the price of oil-heated properties, given the huge increases in the price of heating oil due to the conflict.
“Unlike gas, that market is unregulated and sits outside the government’s price cap, so sellers of those homes could face a meaningful reduction in buyer appetite if running costs become a concern,” he added.
