Property prices in Oxfordshire get 'Boris boost'

Homeowners will be relieved to learn that house prices have risen by 2.3 per cent since the general election on December 12, adding £6,785 to the value of the average home, according to Rightmove, the property search website, which estimates that the average asking price now stands at £306,810.

It is the largest monthly price rise for this time of year that Rightmove has recorded since it began its surveys in 2002.

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The findings tie in with other recent indicators suggesting that house prices are on the rise again. This month Halifax said that house prices had risen by 1.7 per cent in December. Nationwide recorded a 0.1 per cent growth in prices over the same month.

The increase is a reversal in fortune for property owners in Oxford as last year house prices fell.

Oxford was the only city in England where house price fell - the average house price fell by 0.4 per cent in the year to August and was £409,100, according to the Zoopla UK Cities House Price Index.

The average Oxford house price in October was £401,624, Land Registry figures showed – a 3.8 per cent decrease on the same figure for September.

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But optimism sparked by the Conservatives winning a comfortable majority and the potential benefit to the economy that this might bring has reversed any decline, Rightmove said.

The number of agreed sales has risen as interested buyers tie up deals as swiftly as possible to get in ahead of a possible rush.

Miles Shipside, a director and housing market analyst at Rightmove, said the company’s findings seemed to indicate that many buyers and sellers felt that the election result gave a window of stability’.

He added: “The housing market dislikes uncertainty and the unsettled political outlook over the last three and a half years since the EU referendum caused some potential home-movers to hesitate.

2There now seems to be a release of this pent-up demand, which suggests we are in store for an active spring market.”

Rightmove carried out its survey based on asking prices between December 13 and January 15.

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Its survey, which it claims covers 95 per cent of the market, identifies price trends early as it is based on the starting point of the sales process rather than when a mortgage is applied for.

More than 1.3 million potential buyers have made inquiries about properties since the election, 15 per cent more than the same period a year ago, Rightmove said, with agreed sales up by 7.4 per cent.

Data published by Lonres, a property analyst, showed that buyers returned to prime central London during the final three months of 2019, pushing up the level of agreed deals by 34 per cent against the same period a year earlier.

Colby Short is founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, which analyses property listings and Land Registry entries to shortlist the best local estate agents.

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He said: “The property market has sat in a state of hibernation while political uncertainty has remained prevalent, but all the while, both buyer and seller sentiment has been building like a coiled spring.

“The election has proven to be the release point for this built-up tension, with the market exploding back to life almost instantly and both buyers and sellers jumping back in at the deep end where enquiries and asking price increases are concerned.

“This has helped to bump start a market that has been stuttering over the last three and a half years."