Property asking prices reach record high

The average asking price for homes reached record levels between March and April, according to new research.

12:00 18 April 2005

The average asking price for homes reached record levels between March and April, according to new research.

But the figures from property website Rightmove suggest that buyers are increasingly unwilling to pay the premium.

The average UK asking price was up 1.3 per cent to 197,539 last month, the study found: nearly 1,500 more than last summer's record high.

However, the index of house price inflation fell back from 8.6 to seven per cent, its lowest since the survey began.

Rightmove conclude that the gap between sellers' and buyers' aspirations is widening if anything and predicts the consequence will be a stagnating property market.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove commercial director, said: "It will take much higher interest rates or rises in unemployment to significantly lower sellers' price aspirations. Buyers will have to continue shopping around to find sellers who are pricing more realistically."

Despite the apparent mismatch in the market, the number of days that properties remained unsold dropped over the survey period from 82 to 73.