A LEADING Worcestershire estate agent is not worried for the county despite rising average prices on homes across Great Britain.

Matt Nicol, managing director of Nicol & Co, said the market in Worcestershire "is definitely still strong and is growing".

The comments come after Rightmove reported that the national average house price across the UK had increased by nearly £3,000 to £365,357 in March, a monthly rise of 0.8 per cent.

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He said: "The market in Worcestershire is definitely still strong and is growing in what I would say is a consistently steady way. What is currently key to achieving a sale is to be pricing properties correctly.

“Rightmove reports on average asking prices and we have seen some properties coming to the market with price expectations based on last year’s numbers when the market was red-hot.

“A number of factors have changed since then, not least interest rates and that has cooled things down.

“As is always the case this will have an impact across the board and once the fact that there is a ‘new normal’ is accepted fewer price adjustments will be required.”

Mr Nicol highlighted that at this time of year we would expect to see an increase of one per cent so 0.8 per cent is good, "but nothing to get too excited about".

According to Rightmove, the average home price rise was mainly due to a 1.2 per cent, or £7,947, average jump in asking prices in the largest homes sector.

Rightmove said, the 0.8 per cent price increase was below the average monthly rise of one per cent seen in March over the past 20 years, reflecting a higher degree of pricing caution by many new sellers.

Overall, new seller asking prices are typically around £5,800 below a peak reached in October 2022.

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One contributing factor to larger home sales lagging behind is signs of a reduction in people making coronavirus pandemic-driven lifestyle changes.

The proportion of buyers inquiring about making a move over 50km away from where they live is now 15 per cent, the same level as 2019 and below its pandemic peak of 18 per cent.

Rightmove also said that signs that inflation may ease back more quickly than previously expected may mean that increases in the Bank of England base rate are more tempered, which will have an impact on mortgages.