Rightmove tries to steady housing market nerves

Rightmove has issued a statement to agents to try to steady the nerves about the housing market following the government’s mini-Budget.

Portal spokesperson Tim Bannister says: “The number of attractive mortgage deals tumbling this week is a bitter pill to swallow for those who want to move and those with fixed terms due to end, and it will impact buyers’ budgets, especially those who were already stretching themselves. We’re monitoring activity carefully in real-time, and for now what we’re seeing is that the housing market’s very much still moving.

“The number of potential buyers requesting to view properties on Monday and Tuesday was down 3% compared with other Mondays and Tuesdays this month, and demand is still significantly higher than the supply of homes for sale. Also, the number of sales being agreed on Tuesday was at its highest number in a day since early August, perhaps as some people rush to get a mortgage before rates rise further.

“Over the past month activity has shown that the housing market has been surprisingly resilient against headwinds of rising rates and so it looks like for those who can move, they’re going ahead for now. We’ve seen demand softening in the past few months, but buyer demand is still 20% higher than the pre-pandemic five-year average, house prices are 15% higher than they were two years ago, and the overall number of homes going through conveyancing is 40 per cent higher than in 2019.”

Rightmove’s statement concentrates on the sales side, where worries have been most acute.

It says the number of sales agreed on Tuesday was the highest number in one day since early August, although on both Monday and Tuesday demand from buyers (sending leads to agents and developers) was down three per cent compared with other Mondays and Tuesdays this month.

Fall-throughs were in line with earlier September rates and on Monday and Tuesday some 1.6 per cent of all properties were reduced each day - in line with earlier in September. 

A longer-term look shows that buyer demand over the last month was 20 per cent higher than the pre-pandemic five-year average, new sellers are eight per cent higher than 2019 levels, and asking prices are 15 per cent higher than they were two years ago.