Sellers 'more realistic' on property asking prices

Asking prices edged up by 0.7 per cent during May as sellers became more realistic about how much their home was worth, research showed today.

Prices in the Yorkshire and Humber region saw the biggest price gain during the month, at 3.5 per cent, according to Property website Rightmove, in contrast to growth in April which was just 0.9 per cent.

Rightmove said a surge in people putting their homes up for sale, combined with rising levels of unsold properties, led to the muted national increase in asking prices across England and Wales during the four weeks to May 8.

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The increase, which left the average home costing 237,134, was well down on the jump of 2.4 per cent recorded during the same month last year, and less than half the average increase for the period of 1.5 per cent.

The group said it saw its highest number of new listings for two years in the last full week before the election. But it said there now appeared to be fewer people who were either looking to move home or could get a mortgage to do so.

As a result of these factors, it said it had seen a "substantial jump" in the number of unsold properties estate agents had on their books, with this rising from an average number of 68 to 71 during the month.

It was the third consecutive month during which the group reported a rise in the number of unsold homes.

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Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: "While sellers don't appear to be put off, the rising levels of unsold stock indicate that buyers are not as willing or as able to act upon their pent-up moving desires."