UK homes asking prices show record rise for time of year: Rightmove

[LONDON] Asking prices for British homes rose by the most on record for the Christmas and New Year period after a fall linked to uncertainty around finance minister Rachel Reeves’ budget, property website Rightmove said on Monday (Jan 19).

The rise in Rightmove’s house price gauge comes after the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said last week that there were signs of improving expectations for the market following Reeves’ Nov 26 tax and spending statement.

“It’s an encouraging start to the year to see sellers confident enough to list their homes at higher prices after several months of muted price growth,” Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said.

“However, asking prices are only back to where they were in the summer of 2025 before the budget rumours began surfacing, which unsettled the market and dented confidence.”

Reeves announced £26 billion (S$45 billion) of tax increases but delayed the introduction of most of them and did not raise income tax rates as had been expected at one point.

Rightmove said that average asking prices for new homes rose by 2.8 per cent month-on-month in the four weeks to Jan 10 – the biggest increase for any month since 2015 – after a 1.8 per cent fall in the previous four weeks.

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Asking prices were 0.5 per cent higher than a year earlier and the number of available homes for sale was its highest for the time of year since 2014. REUTERS