Online property portal Rightmove are reporting the lowest housing stock levels this century, and possibly for far longer. 

Rightmove says that the number of available properties per estate agency branch is now 63, whilst the average number of available properties per branch is the lowest since January 2008, although this does not tell the full story.

"With many estate agency branches having closed since then, this figure is buoyed by the smaller number of branches sharing the available stock," says commercial director Miles Shipside.
"We estimate the number of properties currently available for sale is the lowest since we started monitoring the housing market in 2000."

At the same time...

House prices continued their upwards climb with a rise of one per cent between November and December last year and sealing the second consecutive quarter of growth, according to the Halifax property index.

Although, Howard Archer, chief UK and European Economist at Global Insight, said: "The Halifax data contrasts markedly with that of the Nationwide which showed house prices rising by just 0.4 per cent month-on-month in December."

He added that this was the smallest Nationwide rise for eight months although the increases had also been limited to 0.5 per cent in both November and October.

"Nevertheless, the year-on-year increase in house prices picked up to 5.9 per cent in December on the Nationwide's measure".

So, whichever measure you look at, prices are on the up!

So, even though some would argue over just how much growth the market has actually seen, one thing is  certain – there is a fantastic opportunity for all property investors to get in and BUY ! BUY! BUY!

There is no better time to invest in property!