Average asking house prices drop more than £4,100 in a month, says Rightmove

Average asking prices fell by more than £4,000 between October and November as more sellers accepted lower offers, according to property portal Rightmove.

The median newly marketed home price fell 1.1 per cent this month, or £4,159, to £366,999, Rightmove said, while annual growth slowed to 7.2 per cent from 7.8 per cent.

She said the housing market was pulling back from the pandemic boom faster than expected.

The drug’s website stressed that the monthly decline “should not be considered in isolation from negative indicators” as it is in line with pre-pandemic averages.

However, it conceded that the sharp rise in the cost of borrowing caused by the micro budget accelerated a slowdown in market activity that had already begun in the summer.

“The frantic market of the past couple of years has turned into a market that is surprisingly more normal and less fluid than we had anticipated,” said Tim Bannister of Rightmove.

He added that sellers are becoming more aware of the need for competitive selling pricing in the current market, which is “more price sensitive” after two years of “buying frenzy”.

Homeowners who come to the market in the last few months of the year tend to lower prices to attract buyers in the run-up to Christmas, and we hear from agents that both new and existing sellers understand that selling in an existing market requires competitive pricing, Bannister said.

More existing sellers, whose properties were already on the market and unsold, were willing to reduce asking prices in order to achieve a faster sale, according to Rightmove.

The proportion of unsold properties that saw prices fall just above pre-pandemic levels increased to 8 percent in October — although this was double the 4 percent in October last year.

Demand from buyers is still 4 percent higher than pre-Covid levels, but is down 20 percent since October last year.

Rightmove said that “it’s clear we’re back in the more price-sensitive housing market after two years of buying frenzy” when “bidding wars” broke out among buyers.

First-time-buyers continue to be the hardest-hit sector, with year-on-year demand down 26 percent, second-step demand down 17 percent, and the top of the ladder down 15 percent.

“The era of historically low interest rates and buying frenzy is over, which could give way to a more normal market opening up potential opportunities for those who have been late entering the overheated market for the past couple of years,” Bannister said.

While declining to predict how much lower prices will be next year, while we wait to see what the fall statement will achieve, he said it was certain that “the extraordinary price growth of the past two years is unsustainable in the face of growing and growing economic headwinds.” Affordability limitations.

However, real estate agents said there was no glut of unsold properties, and people looking to buy still outnumbered homes for sale by a third.

This was helping to prevent any price drops “by more than usual for this time of year,” according to Rightmove.

All regions saw monthly price drops, with Wales, Scotland and London seeing the largest declines of 3 per cent, 2.2 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively.

The East of England saw the smallest drop in average asking prices last month, down just 0.1 per cent, followed by the East Midlands where prices fell by 0.6 per cent.

Estate agent Chestertons said: “Buyers were rushing to complete purchases in order to protect the fixed rate mortgage rates they had already agreed with their lenders.

Meanwhile, many potential sellers are waiting for more economic and political certainty before they put their properties up for sale, which will lead to a shortage of new properties coming to the market in the new year.