Continuing UK home price recovery pushes average value above £250,000
Values up for sixth month in a row, with average topping £250,000 for first time and six of 10 regions tracked seeing increases
Home sellers in Britain raised asking prices for a sixth consecutive month, pushing average values above £250,000 (HK$3 million) for the first time.
Prices sought rose 1.2 per cent in June to an average £252,798, property website operator Rightmove said in a report on Monday. The biggest increase in the year so far has been in the southeast, where asking prices have risen 14.8 per cent.
The report is the latest to show strength in the housing market, after Acadametrics and LSL Property Services said last week that prices rose to a record. Government measures to unblock credit markets have helped a rally broaden from London, where prices reached another record, Rightmove said.
"These increases, along with reports from agents and developers of a pickup in transactions, suggest a wider and more sustainable recovery as the price buoyancy of the London market shows signs of spreading across the country," the report said.
Prices are up 2.7 per cent from a year earlier, Monday's report shows. Of the 10 regions tracked by Rightmove, six showed increases, led by a 1.7 per cent gain in the northwest. The biggest decline was in East Anglia, where asking prices fell 0.8 per cent.
The 1.1 per cent gain in the capital took average prices to £515,243. The biggest increase in London was in Camden, where prices rose 4.9 per cent from May to an average £1.1 million.
