The highest increase in house prices was in London where average property values rose by 0.7% in February, which hasn’t been experienced in London since June 2007.
The percentage of people achieving their asking price increased to 93.8% in February from 93.5% in January and from 88% a year ago.
The average time taken to sell a property also improved from 8.6 weeks in January to 8.4 weeks in February.
However the housing market has not recovered yet as sales volume and demand growth is still slow. The number of sales agreed in February was 9.6% yet the average over the past 8 years has been 30%. Furthermore, the supply of homes for sale rose by 4.6% compared to an average of 14% in previous years.
Richard Donnell, Director of Research at Hometrack says, “There are signs that higher priced supply is coming to the market but whether this stock will sell remains to be seen as the growth in sales volumes and demand over the first two months of 2010 is well down on previous years.”
“A shortage of properties for sale has supported prices over the last 12 months but there is a danger that the pressure to gain instructions may result in the gap between asking and achieved prices starting to widen again”.
In other news, the Bank of England revealed a fall in the number of new mortgages approved in January from 58,223 in December to 48,198, the lowest level since May 2009. This fall is attributed to the end of the stamp duty holiday, which prompted many people to buy homes in December.
Homeowners are urged to take out the appropriate home insurance to protect themselves and their property.
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