UK house prices recovered slightly in the past month, having fallen 2 per cent in the previous two months, according the latest Rightmove House Price Index.
The average price of a property coming onto the market in the month to mid-September was up 0.7 per cent, or £2,277, to a national average of £306,499. This is a rise of 1.2 per cent on the month to mid-August, when average prices stood at £304,222.
House prices rose 4 per cent in the year to mid-September, according to the index. The report says the price rise ‘starkly illustrates the continuing affordability plight of first-time buyers who typically dominate the lower-end property sector.’
Rightmove director and housing market analyst Miles Shipside says: “Some of those trying to get onto the property ladder may have wistfully listened to speculation of lower prices in a post-Brexit Britain.
“While the referendum result has created additional downwards price pressure in some upper segments of the market that were already slowing, those who do not own a home and arguably have the greatest housing need are now finding it harder to achieve their goal.”
Shipside points out that houses in the first-time buyer target market, with two bedrooms or fewer, have jumped an average of £6,000 in price in the past month.
Excluding inner London, the average house asking price in the UK for first-time buyers was £194,477 and £258,836 for second-steppers. At the top end of the market the average price was £545,387.