The average asking price for a home in Greater London has risen 5.4% to £643,843, despite a sharp increase in the number of properties on the market.
Data from property website Rightmove reveals that the number of new property listings has risen 5% in London, while the choice of fist-time buyer homes on offer has risen 10%.
Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst, says: ““For the second month running the highest increase in supply of homes coming to market is properties with two bedrooms or fewer, typically the target purchase of first-time buyers or buy-to-let investors.”
Encouraged by low interest rates, initiatives such as Help To Buy and buy-to-let investors facing increasingly adverse taxes, Rightmove says that 2016 could be the year of the first-time buyer.
However, asking prices rose in 23 of 32 London boroughs in February and are up 11% on the year.
The average asking price in Barking and Dagenham, London’s cheapest borough, has risen by £55,000 over the last 12 months to £291,638. This means a Help To Buy borrower would need an annual salary of over £61,000 to be eligible for the scheme.
And the average asking price for property in inner London has risen 8.8% between January and February to hit £848,000.
In the UK as a whole, prices rose 2.9% between January and February taking the average asking price of a home to a new high of £291,638.
The previous record asking price was set in October 2015 but this has now been exceeded by £2,738.
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