The number of sales agreed this month is the highest ever measured by Rightmove, it says in its latest monthly report.
It says that the figure is 38 per cent on last August and 20 per cent higher than that seen in March 2017, the previous record-holding month. The figures comes to £37bn in total.
Rightmove adds that sales agreed for first-time buyers are up 29 per cent, for second steppers 38 per cent, and for ‘top of the ladder’ homes, 59 per cent.
The average national asking price is now, according to Rightmove, £319,497, which is a 0.2 per cent drop on the month and 4.6 per cent gain on an annual basis.
New asking price records were set in Scotland, Yorkshire & Humber, the East Midlands, the East of England, the North West, the West Midlands, and Wales.
The South East saw a monthly drop of 0.2 per cent in asking prices and Greater London a 2 per cent drop, however.
As well as this, more listings came on to the market in July than has been seen since 2008. On a yearly basis, Rightmove records a 44 per cent jump. Large regional variations are evident though, as Rightmove director and housing market analyst Miles Shipside explains: “Those expressing most desire to move on are unsurprisingly in London and its commuter belt. London has 69 per cent more properties coming to market, with the South East at 60 per cent and the East at 56 per cent.
“With work and transport patterns potentially changing most around the capital, commuter – belt properties need to have more appeal to prospective buyers than just proximity to a station. Many buyers do appear to be satisfying their new needs in these regions, as the number of sales agreed in each is also at a record level. The out of – city exodus has helped push prices to record levels in Devon and Cornwall, for example, where working from home means a different lifestyle much closer to your new doorstep.
Additionally, Rightmove reports that the house buying process has crept up too, as lending and legal sectors deal with the increased workload.
North London estate agent Jeremy Leaf says: “A more broad-based sustainable recovery may be underway with increased activity in most price ranges. If anything, the market is more likely to be restrained by lender delays in mortgage underwriting than a drop in buyer enthusiasm. Prices are not rising significantly as the increase in listings is helping to balance the market and, in any event, most buyers seem aware of the risks of overpaying in generally uncertain times.’
Barrows and Forrester managing director James Forrester adds: “Buried in the numbers today we see an anomaly, one that is historically reserved for London and the South East. That anomaly is that annual asking prices for homes in the West Midlands are increasing more than anywhere else in the UK, up 6.3 per cent since August 2019. And they’re selling quicker than almost anywhere else, too.
“I’m not quite suggesting that the West Midlands is going to overtake the capital. However, with annual growth in prices at 3 times that of London and the South East, it’s certainly evident that we are catching up”.
And MovingHomeAdvice.com property expert Russell Quirk comments: “This latest set of numbers from the especially authoritative Rightmove must surely correct even the most morose of property market bears, for now at least.
“This explosion of activity is not just a consequence of the fuel of stamp-duty-respite but a market that has proven time and again that it is robust even in the most challenging of circumstances.
“You can apparently throw Brexit, political turmoil, a couple of general elections and a once in a century pandemic at it yet it still marches on. Like the proverbial cockroach, no matter what you do to kill it, it simply will not die”.
