The Daily Update: Lay-in to Log-on in 30 Seconds

Earlier this week figures released by Rightmove showed that house prices in the UK showed no sign of slowing their upward momentum as sellers demanded the highest ever prices, with the price of the average home jumping nearly £7,000 in the space of a month. Across the UK the 2.1% month-on-month increase (year-on-year was up 5.1%) pushed the average price for a house to a new record high of nearly £328,000. At the start of this month estate agents reported homes were on average taking 45 days to sell with nearly 25% taking less than a week, due to record low inventory.

Rightmove’s director of property data, Tim Bannister said ‘This is only the second time over the past five years that prices have increased by over 2pc in a month, so it’s a big jump, especially bearing in mind that the lockdown restrictions are still limiting the population’s movements and activities’.

To add fuel to the fire several building societies and banks have begun offering mortgages covering 95% of a purchase price under the government guarantee scheme this week. As announced in last month’s budget, this will allow lenders to buy a guarantee on the portion of the mortgage between 80% and 95%. The government will then cover any losses on that slice of debt if the borrowers get into financial trouble and their property must be repossessed.

One trend that is continuing is that families are moving out of the capital to favour space over their commute. The prospect of home-working more regularly has meant people do not mind having to spend an extra 30 minutes commuting each way for three days a week when it only takes them 30 seconds from bed to computer for the other two.