House asking prices fall in August

Published 16th Aug 2010

Asking prices for homes in England and Wales fell by 1.7 percent in August after an oversupply of property coincided with a seasonal dip in demand, property website Rightmove said on Monday.

Prices fell by their biggest margin since a 2.2 percent decline recorded in December, another period when the holiday season depresses prices.

Rightmove said average stock per agent rose for a sixth consecutive month during the latest survey period and the number of properties added to its website jumped 41 percent from a year earlier.

"No one really wants to come to market in August unless they have to. It shows these new sellers have a compelling need to sell," Rightmove commercial director Miles Shipside said in a statement.

The latest month-on-month price fall comes after a 0.6 percent decline in July, the first dip this year. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and mortgage lender Nationwide both reported seasonally adjusted falls in selling prices last month.

Rightmove said asking prices were 4.3 percent higher than a year ago, above July's 3.7 percent annual growth rate but below the 5.0 percent seen in June.

The West Midlands saw the biggest monthly price fall, down 4.4 percent, closely followed by London with a 4.1 percent drop.

"The number of sellers coming to market in the capital is the highest seen in the month of August since 2007," Shipside said.

"New seller levels seem to be getting back to a degree of pre-credit-crunch normality, but mortgage levels have a lender-imposed ceiling. Its restricted height is giving the market a long-term headache as pent-up buyer demand continues to bang up against it."

Rightmove said it based its data on a survey of 116,879 asking prices on its website between July 11 and August 7, which it says covers 90 percent of property marketed via estate agents in England and Wales.

Source: ' Reuters '

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