UK home sellers boost prices as demand rises

LONDON: UK home sellers raised asking prices in January as demand to buy new property outstripped the supply of homes for sale, Rightmove Plc said.

Average asking prices in England and Wales climbed 0.4 percent from the previous month to 222,261 pounds ($362,000), the UK's biggest property website said in a statement yesterday. From a year earlier, they increased 4.1 percent, leaving them 8.3 percent lower than the peak in May 2008.

Doubt about the economic outlook and limited mortgage availability is discouraging Britons from putting their property on the market, Rightmove said. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron are tapping voter concern on the economy as they campaign to win the general election, which must be held by June.