Agents have secured 40,000 sales subject to contract since the market reopened in May, Rightmove has claimed, but 175,000 sellers are still missing from the market.
Analysis by the portal said there have been record visits to the website with potential buyers collectively spending more than 955,000 hours on it during June 6th, while the number of home movers emailing and calling agents via Rightmove in England hit a new high on June 8th.
According to Rightmove this has helped the market to recover from sales agreed being down 94% annually when the market closed in March, to a 36% decline between May 13th and June 4th.
Rightmove also claimed buyers are paying 97.7% of the asking price on average, an improvement from 96.6% for sales in February.
However, the number of new listings fell by 175,000 during market closure between March and May when compared to the same period in 2019.
Average asking prices in England for June were up 2.9% annually and 1.9% since March to £337,884, Rightmove said.
Miles Shipside, housing market analyst for Rightmove, said:
“Following the initial shock of the early reopening of the housing market, England is getting moving again with a boom in traffic on Rightmove.
“There are no signs of panic selling or even a price dip.
“Some sellers who had agreed a sale before lockdown have been worrying that their buyer may try to re-negotiate with a reduced offer.
“On this evidence buyers may now be trying to exchange quickly, as there are signs of high pent-up demand and upwards price pressure, rather than downwards.
“Lenders may also have been concerned about price instability affecting the risk profile of their low-deposit mortgages, so hopefully this will give them more confidence to increase their range of first-time-buyer products.”
Comments (19)
Don’t know why agents are still talking about RM, just leave and forget about them move into the 21st century join the leavers and catch up with the modern estate agents…
Another Press Release from Rightmove Advertising – NOT a Organisation which represents the Property Industry
…..it’s long overdue, a disclaimer that clarifies Rightmove is simply an “Advertiser” …..to portray otherwise is misleading.
Tw@ts, I know more about agency than the entire board of this website combined.
Translation: We generate so much traffic, you’d be a fool to leave us. Expect more of this.
This.
Meaningless stats.
Upsurge is probably down to agents back at work looking at the competition.
I’m all for knocking Rightmove but the asking price stat is actually incredibly useful. How is them providing proof that prices are being achieved (more so than per lockdown) meaningless?
Yeah that’s my read too.
The stats are pointless because RM use them to suit their purpose. As somebody already pointed out today 175k sellers missing from the market is circa 40% of the market. RM don’t want to publicise that figure as agents will use it (rightly) to beat them up when they then charge full whack in another month.
Achieved prices are the biggest laugh,how can they possibly know until Land Registry publish the results. At best its an ‘Educated guess’ from speak to some agents.
Lastly the 955,000 hours searching is the most pointless stat going, how many are serious buyers or sellers? most daydreamers or agents looking to have a nose.
Stats will be used for THEIR benefit when announcing the full fee and no doubt fee increase at the end of the year.
Of course they will, it’s what their house price index is for, but just because they’re blowing their own horn doesn’t mean the info they’re sharing is pointless and doesn’t have value to us!
i probably agree with you on some of your points but how is it bad that they’re saying several thousand sales agreed in the last month by the biggest agents in the land have been agreed at a lower discount than before lockdown?
Or ‘Doris from down the road’
Here’s a fun game you can all play, whether you’re in the office, or at home…
Read the article again, and replace each mention of the word “Rightmove” with the phrase…
“My neighbour’s Labrador”…
Thank me later
My neighbour’s labrador wouldn’t think of biting the hand that feeds it
Chow chow,may have been a more appropriate breed.
They love their owners, but treat everyone else with impunity..
I was simply trying to lend the article a little more credibility 😉
“ Rightmove also claimed buyers are paying 97.7% of the asking price on average, an improvement from 96.6% for sales in February.”
Please can someone explain how rightmove could possibly know this?
I’ve just read their HPI and the numbers are explained in there. They’ve got the corporates to supply info. Worth a read.
In any event, a helpful stat to use with buyers who are trying it on!
It should read:
“ Rightmove also claimed buyers are paying 97.7% of the “LAST KNOWN” asking price on average
I’m probably being dim, but don’t they know the last known asking price? (assuming the property was on rightmove)
“Analysis by the portal said there have been record visits to the website with potential buyers collectively spending more than 955,000 hours on it during June 6th”
Another meaningless statistic from RM – although it could be explained by how frustratingly slow their website is, particularly on my iPad ! 🙂 🙂