Home prices could be on the verge of rising throughout spring as the asking prices for homes coming onto the market rose by 1% in the month to mid-March for England and Wales. According to the listing site, Rightmove, there has been a 3.2% increase on the number of homes listed for sale in just the past 30 days. Supply does remain tight in homes that are usually targeted by first time buyers, the starter homes that are meant to accommodate both the budget and size of a young family or new investors.

The average house price is close to the all-time high that was reached last summer. Much of the average total was due to a large part of the high prices in London. Now, with all areas in the UK seeing increases in house prices a new high could be reached in mere months.

The average asking price increased by £2,748 to £281,752. That is £30 short of the high reached last June. While the annual rate of increase declined to 5.4%, first time buyer homes increased to 7.6% higher than one year ago.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst, said, “The lower-end properties favoured by first-time buyers and investors are in short supply in many locations due to increased competition among mortgage lenders, who are also chasing landlords with offers of low rates for lower risk.

“Some cash-rich pension pot buy-to-let investors will also be tempted by those tax-deductible mortgage rates, creating further upwards price pressure in a market sector that is already out-stripping the higher-priced ones.

“When the realities of the possible tax penalties on larger withdrawals are better understood by aspiring new landlords, their appetite for buy-to-let may diminish and anticipated demand may be less than speculated. It’s a hard one to call.”

With first time buyers, landlords, and other investors such as pensioners looking to enter the housing market, it is a sign that homeowners should be able to expect equity increases to continue. Lenders are still offering attractive historically low interest rate offers on remortgages and that makes equity release remortgages or fixed long term rate deals something that all homeowners could find beneficial and worth considering at this time.