According to the findings, should increased seller numbers become a trend, additional buyer choice may better balance supply and demand during 2013 resulting in less heady asking price growth over the next 12 months.
Miles Shipside, director and housing market analyst at Rightmove, said: “Those coming to market this month have taken a bullish pricing approach and pushed their asking prices up by an average of £16,492 compared to sellers in December.
“The continuation of rising prices in London does not help buyers looking to get onto the housing ladder or those looking to take the next step up.”
Shipside said it also restricts any recovery in transaction volumes that will deliver the level of fluidity that a vibrant and healthy market needs.
London started the new year with a large 3.6% (+£16,492) increase in new seller asking prices, the largest new year increase since 2008.
This takes the annual rate of increase in the capital to 9.7% which is the highest year-on-year figure recorded since February 2010.
The jump in prices of property coming to market coincides with a jump in new seller numbers.
This month’s weekly run-rate of new property listings on the website is 1,795, up 29% on the 1,396 recorded over the same period a year ago.
While still down 34% on five years ago before the full impact of the credit-crunch this is the highest level recorded at the beginning of a new year since 2008.
Shipside added: “The increase in new seller numbers could be due to more discretionary sellers who previously put their moves on hold but are now deciding to trade up down or out. They may be thinking that it is now or
never as the gap gets wider to the next rung of the housing ladder. There could be a ‘cash-in factor’ too, with sellers hoping to bank financial gains by moving further afield or downsizing.”
Nick Hopkinson, director of property company PPR Estates, said the annual rush of enthusiasm from estate agents at the beginning of the year is now in full swing as the media tries to persuade everyone the property market is back to normal.
He said: “Unfortunately this could not be further from the reality that most potential sellers and house buyers are experiencing as we head into 2013.
“Seller numbers, whilst up on last year, are still circa half the numbers needed in a functioning market with an average of only 64 properties per agent in December 2012.”
Hopkinson added: “As we all know instructing an estate agent is free and is often little more than a ‘testing of the water’ to underpin dinner party ‘bragging rights’ about house prices with instructions going to the most gung-ho agent.
“There are also still over one million homeowners struggling with their current mortgages and on the brink of having to sell to avoid the horror of repossession and bankruptcy if inflation continues to squeeze them or their mortgage costs increase.”
