UK house prices drop £11,000 during summer lull: Rightmove
Average asking prices fell 1.3 per cent to £368,740 in August, property website Rightmove said on Monday (Aug 18). While the decline was in line with long-term trends for the month of August, it follows larger-than-usual drops in June and July.
More than one in three properties have been reduced in price since first coming to market, Rightmove added. It said that the number of houses for sale is at a decade high, up 10 per cent in a year, improving affordability for aspiring homeowners just as borrowing costs come down.
The market is also adjusting to a recent increase in stamp duty, a transaction tax, that brought forward demand in the first part of the year.
'Buyers have the upper hand in this high supply market, so a tempting price is vital to agree a sale,' Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said.
More inventory coming to market is putting a lid on house values, with prices up just 0.3 per cent year on year. More modest valuations are drawing in demand over a summer period that is typically associated with slower sales. Rightmove said that the number of homes changing hands was the largest seen during July since the post-Covid lockdown rebound in 2020, rising 8 per cent from a year ago.
Buyers are also benefiting from a decline in borrowing costs after the Bank of England (BOE) cut interest rates for a third time this year.
However, BOE policymakers are only expected to provide limited help going forward as they are shifting their focus to rising price pressures.
'Lenders have moved their rates downwards to remain competitive, but there doesn't look like much room for too many further reductions if current market forecasts play out,' Matt Smith, Rightmove's mortgages expert, said. BLOOMBERG
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