Rightmove’s January 2024 report described a busier start to the year for the Great Britain housing market. The average asking price of newly listed homes rose to £359,748, an increase of £4,571 or 1.3% on the previous month. It was the largest January monthly increase in the company’s series since 2020.
The annual comparison gave an important qualification. Despite the monthly rise, the reported asking price remained 0.7% below January 2023. December had been a quieter period, and a recovery in activity after Christmas did not by itself establish a sustained rise in completed sale prices.
Supply and demand indicators both strengthened in the source’s early-year comparison. Rightmove reported 15% more homes coming to market than at the start of the previous year. It also recorded a 5% increase in potential buyers contacting agents during the first week of 2024. The listings increase was therefore larger than the growth in enquiries.
The company placed those figures in a wider context. Although buyers had more choice, it reported that the total stock available was only around 1% above the equivalent 2019 level. A sharp annual percentage increase can look different when the previous year’s market was unusually subdued.
Agreed sales were reported to be 20% above the comparable start to 2023. Estate-agent commentary in the article described valuation appointments, viewings and offers, while also cautioning that it was early in the year. Each indicator represented a particular stage of activity, rather than proof that all those transactions would complete.
Rightmove also described increased use of its mortgage-in-principle service. That suggested more visitors were investigating budgets, but the source did not equate an initial borrowing indication with a final mortgage offer. Its expectations for mortgage rates and year-end asking prices were forecasts made at the time.
This retrospective preserves the January 2024 findings as historical platform data. It does not repeat those forecasts as current expectations. The report is most useful when its measures are kept distinct: new asking prices, available listings, agent enquiries and agreed sales each illuminate a different part of the market.