House prices rose by 1.7% from last quarter.
![House prices rose in Q2](https://cdn-res.keymedia.com/cdn-cgi/image/w=1000,h=600,f=auto/https://cdn-res.keymedia.com/mortgageintroducer/uploads/2017/12/shutterstock_499384045.jpg)
The average house price has risen to £251,682 in Q2, reversing the downward trend seen over the last two quarters, the Benham & Reeves Market Index Review has found.
Based on date from Nationwide, Halifax, Rightmove and the Land Registry, house prices are up 1.7% quarterly and 1.4% annually - the first quarterly increase since Q3, 2018.
Marc von Grundherr, director of Benham & Reeves, said: “It’s only natural that the nation’s home sellers want to achieve the best price for their property but what many are failing to understand is that this price is dictated by current market conditions and not their emotional attachment, or a previous valuation some many moons ago.
“While we haven’t seen prices tumble per se, we have seen a hesitance from buyers to transact.
“The result in this demand reduction is always going to be a widening gap between asking price expectation and the price a property will actually sell at and we’ve seen this gap continue to widen so far this year.”
In London, the current average is £512,192, with the capital registering its first positive quarterly price growth in a year but still down on an annual basis.
Since the start of 2019, the average UK asking price being reported by Rightmove has exceeded the £300,000 mark and remained there with a current gap of some £81,000 between that and the average price being approved for buyers by mortgage lenders.
While in London the current gap is notably bigger, with a £152,510 difference.
In the capital, the current average price is £512,193, an increase of 1.5% year-on-year and the first quarterly increase since Q2, 2018, although prices are still down 1.6% annually.
When looking at the price buyers are securing at the mortgage approval stage compared to the asking price expectations of home sellers, there is a 36.2% gap across the UK and a 32.7% gap in the capital.
When looking at the final stages of the property selling process, buyers are paying 25.5% less on average than the average asking price.
Meanwhile in London buyers are paying 24.5% less than the average asking price in the capital.