UK Property Market Activity Sees Upturn After Rate Cut

Rightmove’s latest House Price Index has revealed an upturn in market activity observed immediately after the Base Rate cut announced earlier this month.

The average asking price for UK property was £373,493 in July which represents a monthly percentage change of -0.4% and an annual increase of +0.8%. The August average is £367,785 which is a monthly change of -0.4% and an annual rise of +0.4%.

While the monthly change for property prices in August was a decline of 1.5%, this is in line with monthly trends for the last 18 years. This seasonal drop is in line with the long-term average suggesting a normalisation of the market.

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Due to this positive trend in market activity, Rightmove have now upgraded their 2024 forecast. Last year was seen as more challenging for the UK property market, and many house price growth predictions pointed to marginal drops.

Rightmove’s last 2024 forecast predicted a slight dip of -1% over the year. However, thanks to the more promising trends that have been observed during the start of the year, and the activity boost spurred on by the cut rates, Rightmove have now upgraded their 2024 forecast to a rise of +1% by the end of the year.

Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s Director of Property Science, said: “As the summer holiday season comes to an end, the conditions are there for a more active autumn market. The reaction from home-movers to what is hopefully only the first of several rate cuts over the next year or two, combined with other positive data and trends, has led us to raise our price prediction for the year. We now expect new seller prices to rise marginally by 1% over the whole of 2024. This is a relatively small revision from our original prediction of a 1% fall in prices over the year, since we didn’t initially forecast anything more drastic than a slight drop in prices this year.”