Right move January House Price Index Release

[Ricky Bhurji]

In the early hours of last night, Rightmove released their first monthly House price index for 2016.

Here are some extracts from the release:

"Active start to 2016 and surprisingly good news for first-time buyers".

• The price of property coming to market was up 0.5% in December 2015, the second highest Christmas/New Year period rise since 2007.
• First snapshot of 2016 sees demand surge with Rightmove visits up 21% in the first working week of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.
• Welcome and unexpected surprise for first-time buyers with more fresh property choice and price standstill:

- 6.6% year on year jump in number of newly-marketed properties in their favoured market sector to highest New Year level since 2007.
- First-time buyer prices have hardly risen (+0.1%) suggesting impending stamp duty levy could be having a calming influence sooner than later.

My thoughts are that a few investors may decide to take some money off the table as we've had a pretty good run in the last few years. I am certainly seeing more investor to investor sales as new entrants race to get exchanges on purchases done before April 1st.

Is anybody else seeing any particular trends or things happening in the market place since the beginning of the year?

Ricky

 

[Nicholas Wallwork]

It is early days for 2016 but a flurry of activity is certainly apparent...

Possibly the SDLT changes coming in April or just a fresh year and people wanting to get stuck in.

Time will tell as we near April I guess...