Housing market ‘has stabilised not tanked in 2023’ says Rightmove

The property sales market has stabilised during 2023 after the frenzy of the post-Covid boom and that improving interest rates mean family movers are ‘showing signs of returning to the market’, Rightmove has reported.

The comments have been made within the portal’s latest monthly house price index, which is an antidote to the housing market doom and gloom reported within some parts of the media.

Rightmove says that asking prices are currently down 1.9% on average this month as ‘sellers become more competitive’ on price but that overall during 2023 price have slipped by just 1.1%, a good performance given the battering from high interest rates and troubling economic news.

Also, prices in seven out of the UK’s 11 regions are higher than a year ago. The North West of England leads the way, up by 1.5% compared to last year, while the South East is the worst performer at 3.7% below 2022.

The portal also reveals that buyer demand in the mid-market, second-stepper sector have risen fastest since last year’s post-mini-Budget period (at +9%), while overall buyer demand is up by 6% after some ‘movers paused to wait for calmer conditions’.

Better than expected

“The number of sales agreed in the year to date is just 13% behind the same period last year, a better-than-expected figure given that the 2022 market was much more frenetic, and three of the ten strongest months on record for buyer demand occurred in the first half of that year,” says Tim Bannister Rightmove’s Director of Property Science.

“Whilst at a national level average asking prices have seen a marginal fall of 1.1% compared to last year, there is a mixed picture across Great Britain, which has thousands of hyper-local markets, highlighting the need for sellers to price in line with their local market trends.

“2023 has been an interesting year, with very little straight forward, yet far from the negative market it might have been given the broader economy.”

Tom Bill , head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, says: “It’s not often that November is busier than September in the UK property market but it was this year.

“The economic backdrop has stabilised in recent weeks and gentle downwards pressure on mortgage rates means that transaction volumes should be higher over the next six months than the last six. The main uncertainty facing the property market has gone from ‘when will the bank rate peak?’ to ‘when will the general election take place’?”