Asking prices for UK homes have smallest spring rise since 2016
LONDON: Asking prices for homes put up for sale in Britain have risen by the least for the late spring period since 2016, according to data published on Monday that added to signs of a slowdown in the country's housing market after a tax break ended in April.
The average price for houses and apartments advertised between April 6 and May 10 rose by 0.6 per cent from a month earlier and prices were up by 1.2 per cent from the same period last year, property website Rightmove said.
The price increase pushed the average price to a new record high of just under 380,000 pounds (US$505,000). But it represented the slowest monthly rise for the time of year in nine years.
These relatively subdued price increases - which are well below the pace of average wage growth and consumer price inflation over the past year - contributed to a 5 per cent annual rise in completed sales for the latest period, Rightmove said.
The price weakness reflected the highest number of homes for sale in a decade, while demand in April was down 4 per cent compared with April 2024, hit by the end of the tax incentive for purchases of cheaper homes and for first-time buyers on April 1.
The year-on-year fall in demand was the first so far in 2025. But there were signs that April's lull would prove temporary as interest among buyers picked up in early May.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has previously said Britain's housing market slowed in April after the end of the tax break which pushed up demand earlier in 2025.
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