This was a 5.1 per cent rise compared to the same month last year..
Properties listed on the portal sold in the fastest times recorded at an average of 45 days. Additionally, 23 per cent of homes secured a buyer within a week of being marketed, the highest proportion of sales being made in this timeframe that Rightmove has seen.
The speed of sales has likely been influenced by a lack of stock with 145,000 homes listed in April.
Rightmove did not compare the newly properties listed to 2020 as the property market was shut down due to the coronavirus but said compared to the same period in 2019, this was just a three per cent uptick.
This means new properties listed are meeting normal levels, however they are being outstripped by heightened buyer demand caused by the stamp duty holiday.
Two and three-bedroom semi-detached homes are the most in demand, with a third being sold within a week of listing. This indicates the market is being driven by those who are hoping to make a saving on the tax break.
Rightmove director of property data Tim Bannister said: “This is only the second time over the past five years that prices have increased by over two per cent in a month, so it’s a big jump, especially bearing in mind that the lockdown restrictions are still limiting the population’s movements and activities.
“The property market has remained fully open and is fully active to such an extent that frenzied buyer activity has helped to push the average price of property coming to market to an all-time high.”
Price rises a ‘kick in the teeth’ for first-timers
Those moving into their second homes paid an average of £299,956 in April, 2.4 per cent more than last month and 7.1 per cent more than last year.
First-time buyers paid an average of £203,564 for their properties, a monthly increase of 1.1 per cent. Annually, this was a 4.2 per cent increase.
Tahir Farooqui, CEO of private rental platform Canopy, said: “Another rise in house prices will be a kick in the teeth to hopeful first-time buyers, further widening the gap between them and their first home.
“The stamp duty holiday has no doubt stimulated the surge of activity in the market, but we do need to question whether it has helped the right people.
“For those looking to enter the market a stamp duty holiday doesn’t take away from the fact that house prices are just too high and securing an affordable mortgage is near impossible.”
Rich Horner, head of individual protection at MetLife, added: “The market is revelling in unprecedented levels of demand that have put sellers at a clear advantage. The combination of an active market and ever closer staggered end of the stamp duty holiday is pushing house prices higher and higher.
“If house prices continue to rise, first-time buyers may find themselves squeezed out at the bottom of the market, despite incentives such as the Help to Buy scheme and 95 per cent government-backed mortgages becoming available.”
