The asking price of a typical home in the UK has hit a third of a million pounds for the first time, says Rightmove.

Having risen 1.8 per cent in a month, the average asking price is now £333,564 as demand massively exceeds supply, especially in the north of England.

In its latest market snapshot Rightmove says that while the level of new properties coming up for sale is at a similar level to the long-term average, demand continues to storm ahead.

But whereby in previous market upturns London has generally led the way, the capital’s rate of price increase since pre-lockdown March 2020 is now almost static compared to double digit price growth in areas further north.

Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data comments: “Buyer affordability is increasingly stretched, but there’s obviously some elasticity left to stretch a bit more as many buyers are squeezing their way into higher price bands.

“The pandemic has given a greater focus on the home, and in 2020 we saw a surge in southern coastal and rural areas. So far 2021 is proving to be the year of the northern mover, not only satisfying their pent-up housing needs, but in doing so also narrowing some of the huge price gap with London.”

Prospective buyers are now faced with record prices for newly marketed properties in all regions and countries of Great Britain except London, with three areas seeing average rises of over 10 per cent in the closest available year-on-year comparison.

Wales is growing the fastest at 13.0 per cent per year, followed by North West (+11.1 per cent), and Yorkshire & the Humber (+10.5 per cent). The average increase for all regions outside of the South of England is 9.7 per cent.

In contrast London lags behind at +0.2 per cent (+£1,547), though the portal stresses that within the capital there are widely varying local markets.

Buyer demand has soared and is now 52 per cent higher, on average, than a year ago.

It is the north that is seeing the greater imbalance between demand and supply and this is one of the main factors driving prices to new records in all regions except the capital. This supply shortage is particularly marked for typical family homes with three bedrooms or more, with available stock for sale on agents’ books in April down by an average of 50 per cent on the same period in 2019.

In contrast properties with two bedrooms or fewer have availability down by 24 per cent.