House prices continue to soar, reaching a new record high of £313,655 in April, according to property website Rightmove.
The average price of property coming to market in England and Wales went up 1.1% or £3,547 to £313,655 in April.
This exceeded the previous high of £310,471 set in June 2016.
Rightmove said the number of sales agreed was the highest for this time of year since 2007.
Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst, said there were signs of a “strong spring market”, but it remained to be seen what impact the run-up to the snap election will have.
The market is being driven by first-time buyers, with annual prices rising 6.5% to £194,881 on average.
However, this is tempered by a slower pace of increase further up the market, with an overall annual rate of increase of 2.2%, the lowest recorded since April 2013.
This month’s 1.1% rise is also weaker than the average 1.6% spring-boosted surge of the last seven years.
The East of England has seen the strongest growth in the past year, with prices going up 5.3% to £331,780.
The only areas to see a drop in values were the North East and London. In the North East, house prices fell by 0.7% to £151,459, while in London they went down 1.5% to £646,200.
Last year, the government increased stamp duty on second homes by 3% as part of its plans to curb the buy-to-let market.
Along with changes to mortgage tax relief implemented earlier this month, this has helped to boost the number of first-time buyers getting on the property ladder.
The number of sales agreed dipped at this time last year following the rush to beat the stamp duty deadline.
Shipside said: “Strong buyer activity this month has led to 10% higher numbers of sales agreed than in the same period in 2016. This large year-on-year disparity should be viewed cautiously as the comparable timespan in 2016 saw a drop in buy-to-let activity with the additional second home stamp duty.
“However, they are also up by 3.8% when compared to 2015. With the growth in household numbers and new-build supply struggling to keep pace, demand is strong and has led to the highest sales agreed numbers at this time of year since the heady pre-credit-crunch levels.”
Jeremy Duncombe, director of Legal & General Mortgage Club, said: “Until we start to see the promises from this year’s Housing White Paper put into action, the cost of entering the homeownership club will continue to rise. Great news for homeowners, but not for first-time buyers trying to break away from Generation Rent.
“For far too long now, our housing market has not been meeting the demands of an average first-time buyer and this desperately needs to change. There is simply not an adequate supply of affordable housing across all tenures. The Housing Minister needs to finally address the imbalance between supply and demand which will start to restructure our housing market once and for all, and we hope that the focus on the upcoming election isn’t an excuse to lose focus on the housing white paper.”
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