House Prices Slow with Stamp Duty Relief Deadline

Rightmove has reported that the increase in house prices has slowed considerably over February compared to January, with new sellers exercising "pricing restraint." This is due to a lot of competition in the market, coupled with the stamp duty changes and reductions available to first time buyers currently. However this stamp duty relief is due to end on 31st March 2025, which has caused a flurry of activity in the market, along with the lower mortgage rates we are seeing. This has had an effect on the purchase prices, with an increase of only 0.5% throughout February as opposed to the 1.7% we saw in January.

New sellers on the market is up from this time last year by 13% and the buyer demand is up 8% based on the Rightmove reporting.