Prospective homebuyers who will miss the stamp duty deadline will benefit from a 10-year high in property choice instead, a property listing firm said.
According to Rightmove, the number of new sellers in the market is 8% up on this time last year, which the firm said was at the highest level since 2015.
The firm said February and March were usually the best months for sellers to list their properties, but there was more competition this year, with agents each having an average of 57 properties on their books.
As a result, sellers seem to be “pricing sensibly” and not overpricing like they usually do this time of year, Rightmove said, with the average asking price sitting at £371,870 in March. This was 1.1% or £3,876 higher than the month before and 1% higher than last year.
Rightmove said the monthly increase was in line with the long-term average for the month.
The average asking price for first-time buyer homes was £227,965, a 0.5% monthly change and a 0.7% yearly increase. For second-time buyers, this was 0.8% higher than the previous month at £343,802. Compared to last year, this was 1.3% up.
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Asking prices for buyers at the top of the ladder were also 1.3% higher than last year, at £672,111. Compared to February, this was a 2.1% increase.
Majority of 2025 house transactions already in progress
The report found agreed sales were 8% higher than last year. According to Rightmove, there are currently 575,000 homes going through the legal completion process, accounting for a large share of the 1.15 million transactions it predicted for 2025.
Most of these buyers based in England will likely be trying to complete ahead of the stamp duty change, the firm suggested. However, in its stamp duty report, it assessed that around 74,000 moves – including 25,000 first-time buyers – will just miss the 31 March deadline and complete in April instead.
If they do complete in April instead of before the deadline, this could result in a combined cost of £142m in extra tax. Rightmove said a short extension to help these buyers who had a “reasonable expectation” to complete before the deadline would help, as delays in the process could cause them to narrowly miss out.
Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said: “The pipeline of sales going through the completion process, as well as new sales being agreed, are signs of the strength of the important spring housing market. It’s encouraging to see new activity continue to track above last year’s level. One of the clouds hanging over the market is persistently high mortgage rates.
“While there’s now more of an understanding among movers that rates aren’t heading back to previously ultra-low levels, many will have been hoping that they would drop more quickly.”
