UK homes asking prices show record rise for time of year, Rightmove says

LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Asking prices for British homes rose by the most on record for the Christmas and New Year period after a fall linked to uncertainty around finance minister Rachel Reeves' budget, property website Rightmove said on Monday.

The rise in Rightmove's house price gauge comes after the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said last week that there were signs of improving expectations for the market following Reeves' November 26 tax and spending statement.

"It's an encouraging start to the year to see sellers confident enough to list their homes at higher prices after several months of muted price growth," Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said.

"However, asking prices are only back to where they were in the summer of 2025 before the budget rumours began surfacing, which unsettled the market and dented confidence."

Reeves announced 26 billion pounds ($35 billion) of tax increases but delayed the introduction of most of them and did not raise income tax rates as had been expected at one point.

Rightmove said:

* Average asking prices for new homes rose by 2.8%month-on-month in the four weeks to January 10 - the biggestincrease for any month since 2015 - after a 1.8% fall in theprevious four weeks; * Asking prices were 0.5% higher than a year earlier; * The number of available homes for sale was its highest forthe time of year since 2014.

($1 = 0.7477 pounds)

(Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Suban Abdulla)