2/20/2011 10:28 PMET - Original article

(RTTNews)- UK property asking prices jumped 3.1% from a month earlier in February as sellers followed traditional seasonal trends of pricing high, new research showed on Monday.

The increase took the average asking price for a home in England and Wales to 230,030 pounds ($373,570), property website Rightmove said.

Asking prices had risen 0.3% in January and fallen 3% in December.

Despite the sharp increase, Rightmove said the housing market is still afflicted by poor demand, with buyers' access to mortgage finance remaining restricted.

"The start of this year is very much a repeat of 2010 and so we expect 2011 to be characterized by what may well be the new norm, with the average buyer of yesteryear locked out of the market," Rightmove said.

The number of new properties coming on to the market remained subdued in February. Average unsold stock levels per agency branch declined for the fifth consecutive month from a peak of 78 properties to the current level of 69.

Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: "Any hopes that transaction volumes may be on the springboard preparing to return to historic norms will have been dashed by lenders' predictions that 2011 lending volumes will match 2010's dire levels."

He said only around 530,000 mortgages were taken out last year while 1.3 million properties came on to the market in the same period, highlighting the massive gap between supply and demand.

"The current subdued market volumes are set to be the new norm unless the seemingly never ending discussions between government and mortgage lenders find some way of increasing 'Mr Average's' access to lower deposit mortgages without pricing them out of the market," Shipside said.

Property asking prices jumped 6.7% during February in Yorkshire & Humberside, while prices rose markedly in East Anglia, the North of England and the South East of England.

Asking prices in London climbed 4.2% over the month to 430,680 pounds ($699,420). Among the capital's boroughs, the biggest increases were seen in Merton, Camden, Wandsworth, Kingston-upon-Thames and Barnet.

On a year-over-year basis, property asking prices in England and Wales rose 0.3% in February following a 0.4% increase in the previous month.

by RTT Staff Writer