Industry records fall as 23% of homes take under a week to sell in ‘crazy’ market

Rightmove has revealed that 23% of all properties that reached SSTC this month has been on the market for less than a week, the highest ratio it has ever recorded within the housing market.

The portal has warned buyers that they face a ‘frenetic’ market and that most will have to be ‘on their toes and ready to move more quickly than ever before’.

It also says homes took just 45 days to sell on average during the first two weeks of April, the speediest market ever recorded.

This market research is the latest to highlight a housing in overdrive; a You and Yours programme on BBC Radio 4 unusually dedicated an entire 45 minute programme to the phenomenal housing market, with caller after caller reporting half a dozen offers on their properties within days.

Cornish estate agent Peter Whiting of Whiting & Barlow says that in recent weeks have been the busiest of his 16-year career.

“It is a crazy time to sell houses,” he said. “And it’s definitely the busiest.”

Whiting also said he’s been working 14-hour days alongside his business partner and that their phones have been ringing constantly off the hook from early morning to late at night.

The latest Rightmove index also reveals that the national average price of a property coming to market hit £327,797 this month following a 2.1% jump.

It also says that 145,000 properties have been added to the market, albeit ‘not enough to meet buyer demand’.

Keller Williams CEO, Ben Taylor, says: “House prices have gone stratospheric and if you believe that what goes up, must come down, then surely we must be due a correction soon.
That said, there have only ever been two periods in the last thirty years where house prices have fallen over any significant time and so there are smarter bets to be made.

“If anything, the new Government-subsidised low deposit mortgage, and interest rates that are set to fall still further, will probably cause this explosive market to continue crackling.”
Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, says: ‘The increase we’ve seen recently in the number of buyer enquiries, sales agreed and transactions, has persuaded many sellers to raise asking prices, particularly while stock remained low.

‘The faster rollout, especially of second doses of the vaccine, is prompting more appraisals and listings but not at quite a fast-enough pace yet to bring more market balance and keep a lid on prices.”