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Buyers being squeezed out by rising house prices, Rightmove says

Asking prices in the United Kingdom capital rose 1.9 percent from August to 630,974 pounds ($825,000), real-estate website Rightmove said in a report published Monday.

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Over the past year sellers’ confidence appears to have grown across all parts of the market, although first-time buyers have experienced the biggest price inflation.

Asking prices are up by 4% annually, down on August’s 4.1% growth.

However first-time buyers are “in danger of being marooned by rising prices”, as the price of property with two bedrooms or fewer rises by 3.3% (+£6,240).

House prices in September rose 0.7% compared to a month ago to an average of £306,499 after falling 1.2% in August in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. This is owed in part to the fact that many buy-to-let landlords concentrate on buying up smaller homes as a long-term investment.

The price of property coming to market has seen an autumn bounce-back, with asking prices being hiked by more than £2,200 over the last month.

Miles Shipside, director at Rightmove said an increasing number of people are being cut off from home ownership follwing the European Union referendum. Recently the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said its members were expecting house prices to rise over the next three months.

Ballooning house prices in the United Kingdom look set to squeeze out first time buyers as they struggle to secure large enough mortgages, Rightmove warned on Monday. Rightmove said that visits to its site in the first week of September were 8% higher than in the same period in 2015.

This brings the average asking price of a starter home outside of central London to almost £195,000 or £20,000 higher than a year ago.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst, commented: “Some of those trying to get onto the property ladder may have wistfully listened to speculation of lower prices in a post-Brexit Britain”.

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The East Midlands saw the next biggest monthly uplift, with a 1.3 per cent rise pushing prices to £197,502 on average. In Greater London, prices increased by 1.9% over the month, to an average of £630,974. Most new mortgages are offered at under 4.5 times the borrower’s income.

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