House prices post full house of consecutive quarterly growth

To view the full Market Index Q4 2024 click here.

The latest Property Market Index Review by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has revealed that the property market finished 2024 on the front-foot, with the UK market as a whole seeing a 3% annual rate of growth, whilst London house prices increased by 0.9% year on year.

The Benham and Reeves Property Market Index Review* is a quarterly accumulation of house price data from the top four existing indices, providing the most comprehensive view of UK and London house price performance. It looks at where the average house price sits overall when taking into account mortgage approved house prices from Halifax and Nationwide, seller expectations via the Rightmove House Price Index, and sold prices from the UK House Price Index.

Current property values

Based on a geometric mean of all four existing data sets, the index from Benham and Reeves shows the average UK house price sat at £302,464 during Q4 2024.

This marked a 0.1% quarterly increase, the fourth consecutive quarter of positive growth, completing a full house for 2024 in this respect. On an annual basis, the average UK house price also sat 3% higher when compared to Q4 2023.

In London, the average house price was £581,641 during the final quarter of last year. Whilst this marked a -1.1% decline versus Q3, it saw the London market finish the year up 0.9% versus Q4 2023.

Market gap between mortgage approval price (buyers) & asking price (sellers)

In Q4 2024, the market gap between the average mortgage approved price of a buyer (£281,746) and the asking price expectation of a seller (£366,217) sat at 30%.

This market gap had narrowed from 32.9% the previous quarter and was the smallest gap seen between these two market metrics over the last two years, suggesting that sellers have been pricing more realistically to allow for current affordability constraints faced by buyers.

In London, the gap between mortgage approved house prices (£525,535) and seller asking prices (£679,746) was 29.3% which also marks a quarterly narrowing and the smallest gap seen over the last two years, with London sellers also reducing their asking price expectations in order to secure a buyer.

Market gap between asking price (sellers) & sold price (buyers)

The latest index by Benham and Reeves shows that the difference between the average UK asking price and the average sold price has continued to close.

Across the UK, the average sold price in Q4, 2024 stood at £268,178, -26.8% below the average asking price of £366,217. Q4 was the third consecutive quarter that saw the difference between the two reduce, driven by more realistic asking price expectations of sellers, whilst sold prices increased marginally versus the previous quarter.

In London, the difference between asking price and sold price sits at -19, having increased marginally, up from -17.2% in Q3, despite a quarterly reduction in sold prices.

Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, commented

“Following a prolonged period of higher interest rates and economic uncertainty, many were quick to call the demise of the UK property market at the start of last year. This simply hasn’t been the case and, in fact, we’ve seen a full house of positive quarterly growth, with property values also gaining ground on an annual basis.

This positivity has only continued as we’ve headed into 2025 and we’ve already seen market sentiment boosted by a further cut to interest rates.

Whilst we expect that the impending stamp duty deadline will help to quicken the pace of house price growth over the first three months of this year, the general consensus is that this growing momentum will continue to build beyond 1st April and we look set for another year of positive growth.

At the same time, we’re continuing to see sustained growth across the rental market, with rental values climbing consistently. This has helped to boost the yields on offer to the nation’s buy-to-let investors and so it remains a very worthwhile endeavour, despite the uncertainty posed by the incoming Renters’ Rights Bill.”