Strong buyer demand and a lack of supply has pushed asking prices up 3.5 per cent in a year, according to Rightmove, but the current fast pace of the housing market could be hit by the spread of coronavirus.

Average new seller asking prices hit a record high in the month to 7 March, the online estate agent’s House Price Index recorded, rising by 1 per cent to reach £312,625.

This is the highest annual growth rate since December 2016.

Rightmove director and housing market analyst Miles Shipside says: “The average asking prices of over 110,000 properties that have come to market this month are at a record high as we enter the traditionally busy spring moving season. 

“Many more properties are being bought, and bought more quickly than at this time last year. This is further fuelling the existing shortage of property available for sale, driving up prices to a new record high.”

The number of sales agreed was up by 17.8 per cent, a level also not seen for four years.

Properties have also been moving at increasing speed. Homes were selling at an average 6 per cent faster across the country, rising to 18 per cent more quickly in London.

The average time to sell is now 67 days, down from 71.4 days a year ago. In London it is 15 days quicker than 12 months ago.

Fuelling the increase in prices is a disparity between supply and demand. New seller numbers rose by just 1.2 per cent between 9 February and 7 March.

Shipside adds: “New supply to the market has failed to keep anything close to the pace of demand. Purchasers in a position to buy have been snapping up what’s currently on the market, rather than waiting for the usual post-Easter flurry of fresh supply.”

The Rightmove data was collected before the onslaught on the coronavirus had really taken hold across Europe and increasingly the UK.

With the banning of mass gatherings expected this week, a nationwide policy of social distancing and, in cases of illness, self-isolation, predictions are of an economic slowdown and potential recession, as businesses lose revenue and lay off workers.

Rightmove refused to be drawn on what impact this would have on the housing market.

But Shipside admits it “could now be temporarily affected.

“We expect that housing market statistics, like other economic indicators, could be prone to volatility over the spring and summer,” he says.