Source - Alliance News

- The price of UK properties coming to market fell in August for the first time this year, according to Rightmove’s latest house price index, but the move could be seasonal rather than reflective of a broader slowdown.

UK house prices fell 1.3% month-on-month in August to stand at an average asking price of £365,173, reversing July’s 0.4% rise. The last time average asking prices declined was in December, with a fall of 0.7%.

On an annual basis, house price growth slowed to 8.2% in August from 9.3% the month before.

Rightmove highlighted that prices tend to drop in August, with this 1.3% monthly decline on par with the August average over the past ten years. ‘Summer holidays are taking priority and some new sellers are pricing more competitively to secure a buyer quickly, to beat the lengthy average time to completion and move home before Christmas,’ it explained.

Recent surveys, such as last week’s from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, have pointed to softening buyer demand amid costlier mortgage rates and the cost-of-living crisis.

Rightmove also noted that demand continues to lessen, but there is ‘still a massive imbalance’ between demand and supply.

Buyer demand is down 4% on the ‘hot’ market of 2021, but remains 20% higher than 2019. Meanwhile, new listings are up 12% on a year before, but down 6% on 2019, while available stock is down 39% on pre-pandemic levels.

‘We’re still expecting price changes for the rest of the year to continue to follow the usual seasonal pattern, which means we’ll end the year at around 7% annual growth, even with the wider economic uncertainty,’ said Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property science.

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