Homes in region going for as much as £30,000 more than asking price
Homes in the region are going for as much as £30,000 more than their asking price as the housing market booms after the coronavirus lockdown.
It reflects the position nationally where the cost of a house in the UK rose by a little over £3,000 last month as the property market hit new highs.
House-buyers have shrugged off continued uncertainty in the economy and social distancing to send the average price of a UK home to £224,123.
The two per cent rise in August of £3,188 wiped out the losses made earlier this year as the pandemic tore through the country, according to data from building society Nationwide. It is also the highest rise in a single month since February 2004, when prices jumped by 2.7 per cent.
Nick Berriman, a director of Berriman Eaton which has an office in Bridgnorth, said the rise in prices in the Nationwide report reflected what was happening in the West Midlands.
“It is the strongest market we have seen since 2006. Some properties are selling for in excess of the asking price – in one case by £30,000 more. We are getting very strong prices on lots of houses. The £300,000-to-£500,000 sector is seeing the bulk of interest.”
Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner said: “The bounce-back in prices reflects the unexpectedly rapid recovery in housing market activity since the easing of lockdown restrictions.
“This rebound reflects a number of factors. Pent-up demand is coming through, where decisions taken to move before lockdown are progressing.”
“Behavioural shifts may also be boosting activity, as people reassess their housing needs and preferences as a result of life in lockdown.
Forecast
“Our own research, conducted in May, indicated that around 15 per cent of people surveyed were considering moving as a result of lockdown.”
Meanwhile, official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed house prices increased by 0.2 per cent in May to compared with the month before.
The ONS and the Land Registry said the average price at which a home was sold was up 2.9 per cent on the year to reached £236,000 during the month, after decreasing 0.2 per cent in April.
It is a £7,000 rise on the same month last year.
The current ‘holiday’ from paying stamp duty means that the trend of rising prices is likely to continue in the near-term, but Nationwide also warned that a massive rise in unemployment, which is forecast by most experts, would probably send the housing market back into a slump.
