Online house agent says prices will keep climbing

Online house agent says prices will keep climbing

Fresh evidence that large house-price rises will continue into the spring emerge today in a new survey. The value of homes across the UK last month increased at their fastest rate since October 2002 - an average of 0.9% - according to the regular Hometrack survey.

The online Hometrack estate agency said the latest rises can be largely attributed to the way demand continued to outstrip supply. It concluded that the number of would-be buyers coming into the market was twice the number of new properties being advertised for sale.

All indicators are pointing toward similar conditions and further strong price increases in the coming months, a spokesman said. The findings come just days after the UK's largest building society, Nationwide, reported an unexpectedly big leap in house prices for the same month. It said prices rose by an average of 3.1% last month - £1,000 a week, pushing the average price of a home to £138,730.

Advertisement starts

---

---

Advertisement ends

The figures revealed that properties are now worth 17.1% more than they were 12 months ago. The society admitted the figures were "surprising". Nationwide's economists had been predicting a more modest 9% growth for the year ahead, but this may now have to be revised upwards.

Hometrack found that price rises were evident across the whole country. No county experienced a fall. This has surprised some observers who towards the end of 2003, had been concerned that prices in London and some parts of the south-east were falling as the market peaked. It was feared that a dearth of first-time buyers priced out of the market had helped bring the spiralling prices of recent years to halt.

Any hopes that recent interest rate rises would temper the market also appear to have been extinguished. A separate survey from property website, Assertahome, out today found that in February the average househunter was willing to stretch themselves and pay 4.8 times their household income for their new home.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003