Surprise: Asking prices have jumped to new record highs of £308,151 across England and Wales
In what seems now to be an ongoing trend, asking prices in England and Wales jumped to a new record high of £308,151 on average in May.
The "eye-watering" increase is a rise of £1,118 on the previous month, property website Rightmove said in figures released today.
The price uplift has come despite a flurry to beat the three percentage point stamp duty hike for buy-to-let investors that was imposed on April 1, which was hoped would take some heat out of the market.
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Rightmove's director, Miles Shipside, said the rush of buy-to-let investors investing in properties before the deadline had led to a "famine" of suitable properties and had pushed prices higher.
"Estate agents have perhaps been focused on getting investor sales through to completion before the tax hike, and some may have been surprised by the continuing momentum and scarcity of stock to meet ongoing demand," Shipside said.
"The net effect is eye-watering increases in asking prices in some towns, and is further stretching first-time buyers' affordability even though they are competing against fewer buy-to-let investors in the market."
Average prices for first-time buyer properties, with two bedrooms or fewer, were £11,298 higher in May than April, reaching £194,224. This also marks an 11.4 per cent increase since May 2015.
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In London, London have seen a 10.8 per cent annual increase, with the average price in the capital now coming in at £644,088.
The property hotspot in England and Wales was Croydon, London, according to Rightmove, where prices have surged by more than 18 per cent annually and now average £297,770.
Dartford in Kent also ranked highly, where an 18.5 per cent jump in the average seller's asking price in the first-time buyer sector is now £244,310.