House prices barely moved in June after reaching a record high in May, despite demand softening on fading hopes of a summer rate cut and general election uncertainty.
According to a report from Rightmove, the average price of a property coming to the market for sale fell by just £21 this month to £357,110.
Rightmove said the number of buyers sending enquiries to agents and the number of sales agreed upon remained steady at six per cent higher year-on-year, with the market “maintaining its 2024 momentum.”
It added an exception was “possible election caution among some sellers,” particularly at the top end of the market.
The number of agreed sales came in 17 per cent higher year-on-year in the first four months of 2024, outstripping a 12 per cent increase in the number of new sellers coming to market.
Some 1.1m completed sales transactions are expected this year, although the move towards that target has been hampered by the lengthy time taken to finish a sale once a buyer is found.
According to Rightmove, the average time between agreeing a sale and legal completion is currently a “painful” five months.
“We expect that the improved market activity levels and conditions this year will result in higher transaction numbers at the end of 2024 than last year,” Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property science, said.
“However, the extremely lengthy legal completion process is a frustrating barrier to home-movers converting agreed sales into completed transactions more quickly.”
Despite the impact of stubbornly high mortgage rates, the housing market has shown signs of improvement in recent months. However, confidence has started to slip ahead of the election, and this is being reflected in house prices.
The latest property surveyor report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed its weakest reading since November last week, with a net balance of eight per cent of property professionals seeing home buyer demand falling rather than rising in May.
Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, said demand had been “softer than normal at this time of year.”
“Supply has held up better, which is putting further downwards pressure on prices, which is something sellers need to bear in mind. Autumn may bring more political certainty and a rate cut, which should strengthen demand and means we expect UK prices to rise by three per cent this year.”
Nathan Emerson, chief executive of Propertymark, said: “It’s extremely positive to see stability within the housing market and despite a challenging period of high inflation and elevated interest rates, we are witnessing people approach the market with growing confidence.
“If conditions permit, we are hopeful to see the Bank of England start reducing the base rate when they next meet on Thursday. Should this happen, a potential raft of competitive mortgage deals over the coming weeks would be very welcome news for many people.”