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

According to property portal Rightmove, average asking prices for homes fell by more than £4,000 between October and November as more sellers accepted lower bids.

The average price of a new home sold this month fell 1.1 percent, or £4,159, to £366,999, Rightmove said, as annual growth slowed to 7.2 percent from 7.8 percent.

It said the housing market recovered faster than expected from the pandemic boom.

The real estate website stressed that the monthly decline “shouldn’t be considered a negative indicator in itself” as it was in line with pre-pandemic averages.

It admitted, however, that the sharp rise in borrowing costs driven by the mini-budget accelerated the slowdown in market activity, which had already started in the summer.

“The frenetic market of the past two years has become more abrupt and less flexible in a more normal market than we expected,” said Rightmove’s Tim Bannister.

He added that sellers were becoming more aware of the need to price competitively to sell in today’s market, which is “much more price sensitive” after two years of “buying frenzy”.

Homeowners entering the market in the last few months of the year tend to price lower in the run up to Christmas to attract buyers, and we hear from realtors that both existing and new sellers understand that selling in the current market they have to price competitively,” Bannister said.

A larger number of existing sellers, whose properties were already on the market and unsold, were willing to lower their asking prices to speed up sales, according to Rightmove.

The share of unsold homes that saw a fall in prices rose only slightly above pre-pandemic levels to 8 percent in October, although that’s double the 4 percent in October last year.

Buyer demand remains 4 percent above pre-Covid levels, but has fallen 20 percent since October last year.

Rightmove said it was “clear that after two years of buying frenzy, we have returned to a much more price-sensitive housing market” as ‘bid wars’ broke out among buyers.

First-time buyer real estate remains the most affected sector, with year-over-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 the shopping spree is over, which could give way to a more normal market that offers potential opportunities for those who have been deterred from entering the frenetic market over the past two years,” Bannister said.

While he refrained from predicting how much prices could fall next year while we wait to see what the fall statement will bring, he said it was certain “the exceptional price increase of the past two years is unsustainable against the economic headwinds.” and growing affordability constraints.”

All regions saw monthly price declines, with Wales, Scotland and London seeing the biggest declines

However, realtors said there was no abundance of unsold properties and the number of homes for sale still outnumbered by a third.

This helped prevent price falls “more than is usual at this time of year,” Rightmove said.

All regions saw monthly price declines, with Wales, Scotland and London seeing the largest declines at 3 percent, 2.2 percent and 1.9 percent respectively.

In the east of England, the average asking price fell the least last month, by just 0.1 percent, followed by the East Midlands where prices fell by 0.6 percent.

Broker Chestertons said: ‘Buyers are rushing to finalize purchases to secure the fixed mortgage rates they’ve already agreed with lenders.

“Meanwhile, many aspiring sellers are waiting for greater economic and political certainty before putting their property up for sale, leaving a shortage of new homes on the market in the new year.”

The annual pace of house price growth slowed further this month to 7.2%