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Every home in the country has hit a record house price high in the same month for the first time since March 2007, says property portal Rightmove in September 2021.
In a hangover from the stamp duty holiday bonanza that boosted home prices to record levels, buyers are still flooding the market looking for new properties. According to the online sales site, sellers riding the boom are asking for higher prices but not putting off buyers.
According to the Rightmove report, agreed sales are up 15.2 per cent on average for this time of year, while asking prices are up £5,983 in October compared to September.
Many buyers are concerned that mortgage interest rates may rise soon and are rushing to lock in a fixed rate deal on a new property. However, Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey has already hinted rate rises to correct spiralling inflation may be on the way.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove's Director of Property Data, said: "Competition for property for sale remains hot this autumn, with average prices jumping by almost £6,000 in the month. Although more properties are coming to market, the level is still not enough to replenish the stock that's snapped up.
"Consequently, new price records have been set across the board, with every region of Great Britain and all of the three market sectors of first-time buyer, second-stepper and top of the ladder hitting all-time highs.
"This full house is a rare event, happening for the first time since March 2007. The stock shortages started after the first lockdown and look set to continue with the underlying housing market fundamentals remaining strong and an additional incentive to buy and fix your mortgage interest rate before a widely expected rate rise."
House prices may rise across all areas of the UK, but new data from the Office for National Statistics show the cash is more thinly spread in some towns with a mining or industrial past.
The former mining village of Ferryhill, County Durham, has the lowest house prices – the median is just £39,000. For the most expensive, head south to Northwood, the comfortable suburb on the London border with Hertfordshire. Here, the average house price is £1,000,050, and the differential is not a one-off.
Northwood has had the highest median price each year since 2009. In comparison, the median price for England and Wales at the same time as these readings in December 2020 was £250,000. It's since climbed to £265,000 in June and dropped again to £256,000 in September 2021.
The ONS research looked at house prices in 1,200 towns across the country.
These are the latest figures in per cent from the leading five house price indices:
| e-Surv | ONS | Nationwide | Halifax | Rightmove | |||||||
| A | M | A | M | A | M | A | M | A | M | ||
| Sep-20 | 4.7 | 1.4 | 4.5 | 1.6 | 5.0 | 0.9 | 7.3 | 1.5 | 5.0 | 0.2 | |
| Oct-20 | 5.8 | 1.8 | 5.7 | 1.2 | 5.8 | 0.3 | 7.5 | 0.3 | 5.5 | 1.1 | |
| Nov-20 | 6.7 | 1.2 | 7.0 | 1.2 | 6.5 | 0.9 | 7.6 | 1.0 | 6.3 | -0.5 | |
| Dec-20 | 7.7 | 1.2 | 8.6 | 1.5 | 7.3 | 0.9 | 6.0 | 0.0 | 6.6 | -0.6 | |
| Jan-21 | 8.2 | 1.0 | 8.0 | 0.8 | 6.4 | -0.2 | 5.4 | -0.4 | 3.3 | -0.9 | |
| Feb-21 | 8.6 | 1.1 | 9.2 | 1.2 | 6.9 | 0.7 | 5.2 | -0.1 | 3.0 | 0.5 | |
| Mar-21 | 9.8 | 0.7 | 9.9 | 0.7 | 5.7 | -0.3 | 6.5 | 1.1 | 2.7 | 0.8 | |
| Apr-21 | 11.7 | 0.7 | 9.6 | -0.3 | 7.1 | 2.1 | 8.2 | 1.4 | 5.1 | 2.1 | |
| May-21 | 13.4 | 0.5 | 10.0 | 0.7 | 10.9 | 1.8 | 9.5 | 1.3 | 6.7 | 1.8 | |
| Jun-21 | 10.7 | -2.7 | 13.2 | 4.5 | 13.4 | 2.5 | 8.8 | -0.7 | 7.5 | 0.8 | |
| Jul-21 | 9.1 | 0.9 | 8.0 | -5.1 | 10.5 | -0.5 | 7.6 | 0.4 | 5.7 | 0.7 | |
| Aug-21 | 5.0 | -1.4 | - | - | 11.0 | 2.1 | 7.1 | 0.7 | 5.6 | -0.3 | |
| Sep-21 | 12.1 | 1.8 | - | - | 10.0 | 0.1 | 7.4 | 1.7 | 6.5 | 1.8 | |
| Key: A = Annual M = Monthly | |||||||||||
The figures for average house prices and movements in property values can be confusing if you don't know how to read the data. Here are some of the most asked questions about house price indices.
The reports use different data to draw conclusions and take the data from different periods. Nationwide and Halifax base their indices on customer data, which are much smaller samples than the national data analysed by the ONS. Acadata's methodology includes analysis that no other index uses. Each organisation collects data over different periods, making a direct comparison difficult.
There's no such thing as an average home; the figure is simply math calculated from the total value of all transactions in the sample divided by the number of homes changing hands.
All have flaws because of the restricted data, but the one with the broadest sample comes from the ONS. Unfortunately, the ONS data is usually the last to market and out of date by two to three months on publication.