Your Watford & Hertfordshire market report

After a fast and busy start to 2025, the property market slowed slightly in February. Asking prices were up by 0.5%, down from January's 1.7% and slightly below the 0.8% average for the time of year.

Rightmove says this is partly due to the looming Stamp Duty rise from April 1st and the increasing supply of property for sale after a record number of sellers came to the market in January.

The average number for sale per estate agency branch is now at a 10-year high, and Rightmove's property expert Colleen Babcock says:

"Agents report that some of the steam is coming out of new sellers' price expectations to fit the changing market conditions, which is a sensible reaction to attract buyer interest and will also help support activity levels."

It was feared there could be a more pronounced slump in sales agreed as the Stamp Duty deadline approached, but since the average conveyancing for a house sale takes around 12 weeks, any sale that occurred after the first week of January is unlikely to beat the deadline, and so asking prices should have adjusted for the change some time ago.

Instead, there are reports that buyers who had been put off by high interest rates and a change of government have been reassured by the recent base rate reductions and are now returning to the market.

And London, which has been lagging behind the rest of the market for some time, bucked February's relatively subdued trend with a 2.3% jump in asking prices.

Matthew Marchant, Sales Director at Rolstons, notes that while growth in first-time buyer property prices eased in February, market activity remains strong and comparable to pre-pandemic levels in all price ranges.

Rental & Buy To Let Market

After four months of falls, the average UK rent rose in February by 0.3% to £1,275 per month and by 1.0% annually, according to Rolstons Lettings research.

This, says Rolstons, mirrors a similar trend to 2024, when a small rise in February 2024 followed three months of falls.

The biggest monthly rise was in the East Midlands, where rents jumped up by 1.3%, although the biggest annual growth in the mainland was in the West Midlands at 7.4%.

In London, though, the slowdown continues. Flat rents were £2,026 per month in February, and on an annual basis, they are down by an average of 2.1%.

However, the market varied widely between the Capital's many boroughs. In Bromley, for example, rents have gone up by a whopping 15.8% over the last twelve months and by 14.3% in Croydon, whereas in Tower Hamlets, they have sunk by as much as 9.3% and by 8.5% in Barking, Dagenham and Havering over the same period.

Overall, rent affordability is slowly improving, as the average proportion of gross income that households spend on it each month fell for the first time in February in four years.

If you'd like to talk to an agent for more personalised advice, our team is always available to help. We'd love to hear from you for a quick chat or a no-obligation property valuation.

Warm wishes

The team at Rolstons