UK House Prices Rise Most In 4 Years: Rightmove

(RTTNews) - UK house prices increased at the fastest pace in four years in September driven by higher demand for larger homes, data published by the property website Rightmove showed Monday.

House price inflation advanced to 5 percent from 4.6 percent in August. This was the fastest growth since September 2016.

House prices gained 0.2 percent month-on-month in September, reversing a 0.2 percent drop in August.

Data showed that the trend of up-sizing to a larger home has continued at pace over the past month, leading to record asking prices in the second-stepper sector, made up of three- or four-bedroom homes.

"Needing more space has always been the most popular reason for moving house, but now there's a new urgency for extra space to be able to work from home, which means that there are different sets of buyers competing for the same type of property," Tim Bannister, Rightmove's Director of Property Data, said.

National sales agreed for the whole year to date were down just 5 percent on the same period in 2019.

In September, sales agreed compared to this time last year was more than 100 percent in the largest 'top of the ladder' homes sector.

According to Rightmove, there were nearly 40 percent more sales currently on the journey from agreeing a price towards completing the sale compared to this time last year.