London lags behind country on house price growth
London is still playing catch up to the rest of the country on house price growth, Rightmove data revealed today.
The national average price of property is set to rise 5 per cent next year, thanks to the ongoing trends of fierce buyer demand and low stock levels.
However, the London market will grow at a slower pace than elsewhere, with prices set to rise by 3 per cent in 2022.
However, there will “be hotspots and cooler spots” in the capital “as its own unique and diverse markers continue to operate at different speeds,” according to Rightmove’s director of property data Tim Bannister.
“International buyers have been more on the scene, and both at the top end and lower down the price brackets,” he added.
What’s more, buyers can find some “attractively priced properties as the combination of London’s post-boom rebalancing and Covid effect changes on supply and demand in its many sub-markets plays out.”
This optimism was echoed by Benham and Reeves’ Marc von Grundherr, who said the city had been “building a serious head of steam” recently. Office returns, foreign buyer demand increasing and travel measures easing have all buoyed the market, he said.
A 3 per cent increase was “quite some way off expectations.”
Despite alarm over the Omicron variant, headlines would not derail the market when it has “finally awoken,” von Grundherr said.
An imbalance between supply and demand has led to buyer demand per available property hitting near record highs, the property platform said. It was likely that scenarios of “multiple buyer bids on a high proportion of properties when they come to market is set to continue in the new year,” Bannister said.
Across the UK, the most competitive markets presently are in Scotland, the West Midlands, the South West and the Yorkshire and the Humber. These areas are likely to see price growth at a higher rate of upwards of 7 per cent next year.