The week before the election saw the highest number of new homes coming on to Rightmove since June 2008, seemingly undeterred by the impending election. However, the lack of buyers able to obtain a mortgage and proceed in these uncertain times appears to be starting to tell. The average asking price for a property in Wales edged up just 0.5% in the month to now stand at £170,562.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove comments: “We observed last month that rising prices and more properties coming to market would be unhappy bedfellows in the long-term. This month we have seen signs that the relationship is under increasing stress. Sellers are starting to reduce their pricing expectations to court the fewer buyers who are able to proceed, though the number of buyers who can purchase is too low to bring volume back to the housing market. The ugly ducklings in the housing beauty parade will be left on the shelf.

The increase in new listings around the election was then added to when the new Government announced that Home Information Packs would be suspended with immediate effect on Thursday 20th May. Rightmove measured that new listings in Wales increased 66% in the seven days since the HIPs announcement compared to the week leading up to it; this was significantly higher than the national average increase of 35%.

Shipside comments: "66 per cent is a significant increase in new listings, and indicates that many more speculative sellers have been encouraged to bring their properties to market since HIPs were scrapped. It seems that the additional cost and red tape were putting sellers off."

There were some notable regional differences in the Welsh property market, with average asking prices in South Wales dropping by -1.3% but prices in the North/West region increasing by 1.8%. In Swansea prices dropped by -4.4% although the Cardiff market saw an increase of 1.1%.

One of the many issues for the new Government is to review the broken housing market. The previous Governments target of 3 million new homes by 2020 was aimed at meeting projections for growth in the number households. This target is now in tatters with the industry struggling to build even 100,000 homes this year. There is also the looming issue of reducing public sector spending by £6 billion. This will have an impact on the financial position of thousands of employees whose jobs depend on the public sector and a resulting knock-on effect on the health of the housing market.