Property portal Rightmove states that the 2022 property market across the UK continues to set new milestones for price and activity levels. This includes the price of property coming to market hitting a new record UK high for the third consecutive month.
Described as a 'spring market frenzy', Wales is once again at the top of the regional list recording the highest average house price increase year-on-year of 14.5%, and a monthly increase of 2.7%.
The property portal puts the UK average house price at £360,101, with research by the Principality building society indicating that the average house price in Wales is now £233,361.
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This figure sets another new record for Welsh house prices, up by 3% across the first quarter of 2022, according to the Principality.
The Office for National Statistics' (ONS) latest house price index for Wales, published on April 13, covers the period up to and including February 2022 and breaks the house price increase figures down to county level.
The ONS data reveals that Merthyr Tydfil, Vale of Glamorgan and Blaenau Gwent are the top three counties in Wales to have the highest year-on-year increase in average house price to February.
On a UK level, the three months from January to March 2022 saw a price jump of over £19,000, which is the largest seen in any three-month period since records began.
As the frenetic activity continues, properties are selling faster than ever previously recorded by Rightmove. According to their data, on a UK level the pace is twice as quickly as in the more normal, pre-pandemic market of 2019.
In 2019 on the portal, the average time to sell was 67 days, the latest figures show an average of just 33 days before a property is marked as sold subject to contract on Rightmove.
Of course, this is an average, and some popular properties are sold within days while others may still take months to find and secure a new owner.
Rightmove also states that 53% of UK properties are selling at, or over, the full asking price, again the highest level ever measured.
Overall, Rightmove's analysis shows that properties are achieving 98.9% of the final advertised asking price on average, which is also the highest percentage since their records began.
When it comes to what is selling and where, sales are up across all of Rightmove’s lower, middle, and upper market sectors and across all regions. This is known as a 'full house' and is only the second time this has occurred since 2007, the first being in October 2021.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data comments: "While growing affordability constraints mean that this momentum is not sustainable for the longer term, the high demand from a large number of buyers chasing too few properties for sale has led to a spring price frenzy, a hat-trick of record price months, and the largest price increase for a three-month period Rightmove has ever recorded.
"The strong momentum has carried over from last year and, combined with the impetus of the spring moving season, has delivered the quickest selling market we’ve ever seen."
However, Rightmove also suggests that the pace of price rises does now appear to be tailing off a little, with April 2022's increase of 1.6% being lower than the 1.7% and 2.3% in March and February of 2022, tailing off slightly as affordability constraints and economic headwinds combine.
Whilst it is normal to see modest seasonal price falls in several months of the second half of the year, with stock remaining at record lows and underlying strong demand, Rightmove states it does not expect these falls to be any more significant than usual during 2022 and sustained price falls are unlikely.
Tim Bannister says: "The economic headwinds of strongly rising inflation and modestly rising interest rates are being kept at bay by the even stronger tailwind of property market momentum that has carried over from last year.
"The year 2021 saw four consecutive monthly price records from April through to July and I would not bet against that being bettered this year as we are already at three consecutive records in April.
"There are some early signs of an easing off from the frenetic pace of price rises, and buyer enquiries to agents are down by 16% on last year’s stamp-duty frenzy. However incredibly, buyer enquiries are still 65% above the more normal market of 2019 and the number of sales agreed is up 21%.
"While there is growing economic uncertainty, our current market statistics show there is greater certainty that your property will sell more quickly than ever before, and likely at a record price.
"It can’t and won’t continue like this, but with the demand and supply imbalance being so out of kilter, it looks like any substantial slowdown will be gradual in coming and be a soft rather than hard landing.
"It seems likely that the supply/demand mismatch will remain for at least the rest of this year. Even with some economic uncertainty, where you live and your home is such a fundamental decision for people that it will remain a priority for many."
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