2022

12 reports · 15,121 words · net sentiment 1.32 per 1k (net reassuring).

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The year in review

A read of all of this year's reports.

2022 reads as a year that breaks records on the way up, then breaks character on the way down. The first half stacks consecutive monthly asking-price records and a near-festive faith in buyer demand; the second half cools "from boil to simmer," then snaps into caution after the autumn mini-budget sends mortgage rates jumping. By December the story is no longer about how fast homes sell but about who is pausing and waiting for a calmer 2023.

Themes

  • Record after record: the reports tally a run of consecutive monthly asking-price records from January through July, trading on phrases like "third consecutive price record" and "fourth new record."
  • A persistent supply-demand "mismatch": low stock against high demand is the engine cited every month, with twice as many buyers as sellers in spring.
  • Affordability creeping in: rising interest rates, deposits and the gap between mortgage and rental "outgoings" build from a footnote in spring to the main event by autumn.
  • The mini-budget rupture: from October the reports track mortgage-rate shock, buyers pausing, and first-time buyers as "hardest hit."
  • The seasonal alibi: autumn and winter price drops get repeatedly framed as "in line with" pre-pandemic norms to separate seasonal change from market change.

Sentiment & tone

The writing runs warm, which matches the high net positive sentiment and the heavy superlative count: spring reports pile on "best ever," "biggest ever," "quickest selling market we've ever seen." The tone shifts hard around October. Where spring sells urgency ("move fast," "power buyer"), autumn sells reassurance and caution, leaning on the year's high hedge rate with "it will take time to filter through," "too early to know," and "we'll be waiting." The vocabulary of "fear," "dream" and "missing out" dominates February; by November and December the register turns to "limbo," "stand-off" and movers who "weigh up their options."

Key words & phrases

Recurring vivid images: "from a boil to a simmer" (July) and earlier "frothy" framing of the market. The "mismatch between supply and demand" appears across multiple months as a fixed phrase. February runs hard on "fear of missing out" and "dream home." May and July foreground "outgoings" in the affordability analysis. October and November lean on movers who "pause" and wait.

Worth noting

  • The turning point is the September mini-budget, and the tone flips within one report: September's headline still calls the market "surprisingly resilient," then October's becomes "Some new movers pause while agreed deals rush to complete."
  • August quietly marks 20 years of the index, noting asking prices "more than doubling (+134%)" while salaries grew 76%, outstripping both salaries and general inflation.
  • A genuine contradiction: July revises the full-year forecast up from 5% to 7% growth even while admitting the market is "cooling," then December lands at 5.6% and forecasts a 2% fall for 2023.
  • March drops its sell-the-spring confidence to call the war in Ukraine "abhorrent and devastating," a jarring register shift inside an otherwise upbeat report.
  • December's "a year of two halves" framing comes from Foxtons CEO Guy Gittins, capturing the year as London "paused to catch its breath."

What this year was about

Words this year used far more than the rest of the corpus — its preoccupations, not generic property language.

wordusesvs rest of corpus
mismatch520.3×
outgoings520.3×
salary520.3×
sixth520.3×
fear416.3×
dream416.3×
underpin416.3×
salaries416.3×
exempt416.3×
restrictions312.2×
comfortable312.2×
payments1512.2×

Tone profile

Hits in this year, raw and per 1,000 words.

categoryhitsper 1k words
superlatives1298.53
hedges1056.94
reassurance231.52
caution to sellers30.2
softening pivots16510.91

Headlines

Voices this year

Tim Bannister (21), Agents (3), Ben Hudson (3), Kate Eales (2), Ailsa Mather (2), Roger Wilkinson (1), Barry Chuwen (1), Agent (1)

Sample report — February 2022

Biggest ever monthly price jump sets new record high as movers fear missing out

  • Price of property coming to market rises by 2.3% this month (+£7,785) to a record of £348,804, the biggest monthly jump in pounds recorded by Rightmove in more than twenty years:
  • Prices are now 9.5% higher than a year ago, the highest annual rate of growth since September 2014
  • There are signs that both buyers and sellers fear missing out in the current competitive market:
  • More potential buyers are sending enquiries to agents, with the number 16% higher than this time last year
  • New property listings are up 11% compared to the same period last year, suggesting more sellers are coming to market before looking for a property to purchase, to avoid missing out on their next home

February picks up where January left off, as the second month of the year proves to be even stronger than the first. New seller asking prices hit a new record high of £348,804 this month, rising by 2.3% (+£7,785). February normally sees a rise in asking prices from January, but this is the biggest monthly jump in cash terms recorded by Rightmove in more than twenty years of reporting, and the annual rate of asking price growth (+9.5%) is the highest recorded since September 2014. This new record means that average asking prices have now risen by nearly £40,000 in the two years since the pandemic started, compared to just over £9,000 in the previous two years. The pandemic continues to influence many home moves, with this month’s price growth driven primarily by the “second stepper” sector – those who may find themselves in need of more space and are now ready to move on from their first homes. As the final pandemic restrictions now look to be ending, and returning to the office is encouraged or required by many businesses, London has recorded the biggest jump in the number of buyers sending enquiries of any region (+24%), a new price record, and its highest annual rate of price growth since 2016.

Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s Director of Property Data comments: “The data suggests that people are by no means done with their pandemic-driven moves. Such a significant societal event means that even two years on from the start of the pandemic, people are continuing to re-consider their priorities and where they want to live. As the final legal restrictions look to be ending soon, and more businesses are encouraging a return to the office for at least part of the week, we now have a group of movers who are looking to return closer to major cities, or at least within comfortable commuting distance of their workplaces. High demand and a shortage of available stock are supporting a rise in prices and a new record average asking price this month. The rising cost of living is undoubtedly affecting many people’s finances, especially those trying to save up enough for a deposit to get on the ladder or to trade up. However, despite rising costs and rising interest rates, the data right now shows demand rising across the whole of Great Britain, with many people determined to move as we head into the spring home-moving season.”