British Car Auctions’ (BCA) Pulse report for March demonstrated a 0.7% decline in average values from February, although year-on-year values rose by 17.1%.

The average value was £7,000, down £56 from February but up from £5,974 in March 2012, with an average value against CAP of 97.8%. This marks the fourth month in a row average prices have hit £7,000 or higher, and the fourth-highest month since Pulse began in 2005.

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BCA said such high values resulted from a shortage of retail quality stock, and UK operations director Simon Henstock said prices were high "largely as a result of the constricted supply rather than strong demand".

Cars were also coming to market earlier, with an average age of 61.7 months and an average mileage of 56,510, compared to 63.4 months and 58,923 a year ago.

Fleet, part-ex and nearly new

Fleet and lease values fell £117 (1.3%) to £8,734 between February and March, marking a year-on-year rise of 12% and a value against CAP of 97.68%. Cars were also coming to market earlier in 2013, with an average age of 40.4 months compared to 41.4 a year before, while remaining virtually static month-on-month.

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Part-exchange values rose marginally month-on-month, from £3,556 to £3,566, which represented a year-on-year increase of 22.8%, with value against CAP at 95.9%. The average age of part-exchange vehicles also fell year-on-year, from 89.5 months to 87.6 months.

The average value of nearly-new cars, with an average age of 8.7 months, grew 13.3% month-on-month to £21,075, beating CAP valuations at an average100.7%. BCA said nearly-new values are always affected by "changing model mix" and March’s figures "reflect a number of special high value sales staged by BCA" over the month.

Henstock said: "With volumes increasing quite significantly in March, we saw pressure on conversion rates and a notable reluctance for trade buyers to bid as strongly on poorly presented vehicles."

He added: "As we are now in the post-Easter period, the dynamics of the wholesale markets are changing. Typically this time of year brings a softening in demand combined with an upswing in supply, so we expect to see continuing pressure on values and conversion rates in the weeks ahead."