After a fast start to 2025, the property market slowed slightly in February, with asking prices up by 0.5%, down from January’s 1.7% and slightly below the 0.8% average for the time of year.

This, says Rightmove, is partly the result of the looming Stamp Duty rise from April 1st and also the increasing supplies of property for sale after a record number of sellers came to the market in January.

The average number for sale per estate agency branch is now at a 10-year high and Rightmove’s property expert Colleen Babcock says:

“Agents report that some of the steam is coming out of new sellers’ price expectations to fit the changing market conditions, which is a sensible reaction to attract buyer interest, and it will also help to support activity levels.”

It was feared there could be a more pronounced slump in sales as the Stamp Duty deadline approached, but since the average conveyancing for a house sale takes around 12 weeks, any sale that occurred after the first week of January is unlikely to beat the deadline and so asking prices should have adjusted for the change some time ago.

Instead, there are reports that buyers who had been put off by high interest rates and a change of government have been reassured by the recent base rate reductions and are now coming back to the market.

And London, which has been lagging behind the rest of the market for some time, bucked February’s relatively subdued trend with a 2.3% jump in asking prices.

Amanda Bryden, Head of Mortgages at Halifax, notes that while growth in first-time buyer property prices eased in February, market activity remains strong and comparable to pre-pandemic levels.

And lender Nationwide is reporting that property prices have now risen for six months in a row.

HOUSE PRICES AND STATISTICS

Despite some variation in the monthly figures, annual rises are broadly in line.

Nationwide: Feb: Avg. price £270,493. Monthly change +0.4%. Annual change +3.9%.
Halifax: Feb: Avg. price £298,602. Monthly change -0.1%. Annual change +2.9%.
Land Registry: Dec: Avge. price £268,087. Monthly change -0.1%. Annual change +4.6%
Zoopla: Jan: Avg. price £267,200. Annual change +2%.
Rightmove: Jan: Avg. price £367,994. Monthly change +0.5%. Annual change +1.4% (asking prices on Rightmove)

BUY-TO-LET

After four months of falls, the average UK rent rose in February by 0.3% to £1,275pcm and by 1.0% annually, according to Homelet’s rental index.

This, says Homelet, mirrors a similar trend to 2024 where a small rise in February 2024 followed 3 months of falls.

The biggest monthly rise was in the East Midlands where rents jumped up by 1.3%, although the biggest annual growth in the mainland was in the West Midlands at 7.4%.

In London, though, the slowdown continues, with rents flat in February at £2,026pcm and, on an annual basis, they are down by an average of 2.1%.

As ever, though, the market varied widely between the Capital’s many boroughs. In Bromley, for example, rents have gone up by a whopping 15.8% over the last twelve months and by 14.3% in Croydon, whereas in Tower Hamlets they have sunk by as much as 9.3% and by 8.5% in Barking, Dagenham and Havering over the same period.

Overall, the affordability of rents is slowly improving as the average proportion of gross income that households are spending on it each month fell for the first time in February in four years.