Asking prices of houses fell 2.4% over the last month – the largest ever fall in August that Rightmove has yet seen.
Asking prices fell in all regions, including London where a 1.2% dip took prices down from £460,304 in July to £454,875.
The site attributed the fall to reticence by agents to put property on the market at higher prices, especially when existing stock for sale is failing to attract serious buyer interest.
However, asking prices are still 2% higher than a year ago.
The Olympics had a huge effect, with search activity on the site plunging 50% during the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies and during ‘Super Saturday’.
Despite flagging buyer interest, more new properties – 127,992 – came on to the market than this time last year.
While asking prices do often fall in August, the average drop over the last ten years has been 1.1%. The current drop represents a fall of £5,837.
Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: “Estate agents are always aiming to win new seller instructions, but if what’s already on the market isn’t shifting, then the best advice they can give to potential new sellers is to undercut those properties already failing to sell.
“With a few more summer sellers around, it seems agents are being a bit blunter on valuations.”
Average time on the market is 92 days, according to Rightmove.
Despite the fall in asking prices, there is still an enormous gulf between what sellers want to achieve – on average, £242,097 – and what they are likely to have to accept. Halifax and Nationwide are reporting average sales prices of £161,094 and £164,389 respectively for July.
An operational note from the Land Registry, in advance of releasing full data, says that the average house price in England and Wales during July was £162,900.
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Comments
You can just imagine the scene in Hitlers bunker in Berlin in May 1945.."Ooh just sit tight everyone and hope those nasty Russians just go away and everything will be alright"
people with no income cannot just sit tight
theres council tax and other bills to pay each month
many councils go for liens on property or bankruptcy as you can be bankrupt for owing just £750
if you have no income or insifficient income you have to sell
Oh dear The Truth, thank god that’s only in your little negative mind, that’s not the real world, cheer up, things will improve, you will get a job, labour will get back in and increase benefits for all forms of low life again.
Its a fact negative folk die younger, sort your self out or don’t post so late after boozing it up.
If you were right every housebuilders would go bust, all the trades people would be out of work, all surveyors, conveyancers and agents the same, its just not going to happen.
Can I suggest with your dark state to not read this site, its is infested with those who think they can kill the housing market, if you start believing this lot, and you would be the first, you may end in committing suicide, this is not the real world! Try moving to Greece perhaps
"People will simply sit tight and put up with their current home"............Well thats good because they can sit tight forever without ever seeing the fruits of their "hard-earned" investment because our economy is imploding fast and there simply is not the money to support high house prices. Look at the youth of today. Do you REALLY think they are dynamic and resilient enough to turn things around ?. They are apathetic,resigned and disheartened and don't give two ***** about buying an over-priced house.The last thing on their future plans.We are just a garbage debt-ridden country about to become an economic pygmy but some just cannot see the reality.
Santander has just announced it is adding 0.5% to its SVR. Wonder if that might have an impact on the market...
At least Brit is working hard for his equity, rather than expecting to sponge off others' hard work and have it gifted to them.
chickens coming home to roost as predicted
the bursting bubble will be started by agents refusing overpriced instructions and concentrating on matching sellers to what they know buyers can afford
I predict prices in central london will fall 50-80% and the rest of the country30-50%
however,some flats will become unsaleable and unmortgageable owing to type,low lease,high maintenance etc
Asking prices any way are too high in London and sellers won't get my hard earned deposit till they get realistic.
I wonder if they are laying awake all night thinking that if only they could find it in their heart to subsidise Brit they could then hope find a vendor willing to come down too.
The market is over extended and the chain gap too big for most people to bridge. People will simply sit tight and put up with their current home rather than follow an aspirational whim to buy somewhere bigger or better. Tenants aren't giving up stable tenacies, vendors aren't giving up practiacl homes.
The price drops will come from 2nd homes in anywhere not the South West, executors sales and undesirable- pre repos. Good luck Brit and thanks for the laugh!
I want house prices to go up because the more I pay the better value I think it is and someone will pay even more than me for it. Lets face it houses in Britain are the best value in the whole wide world and are vital to our economy.
The way asking prices are calculated they are a joke and pretty meaningless.
Asking prices any way are too high in London and sellers won't get my hard earned deposit till they get realistic.
Ray - RM measure initial asking prices, not the final one before a sale price is agreed. That would partly explain why the gap is larger.
All that buyers need to do is find the initial asking price, cut it in half, then negotiate upwards from that position ; )
@ robbie on 2012-08-20 10:32:24.
Agreed.
Perhaps I was not too clear, It is an average of around £80,000 difference twixt asking and sale that I find difficult to take on. Delete the upper and lower quartile would probably be better?
"I can think of one EA firm locally who is currently pricing virtually all its new properties well above asking prices at the height of the boom years"
Just one? You don't get out much then I take it...
Rightmove's asking price surveys are complete nonsense IMPO.
I can think of one EA firm locally who is currently pricing virtually all its new properties well above asking prices at the height of the boom years - between 50K and up to 100K more. Such asking prices are, IMPO, a complete nonsense when stuff on for current asking prices is not selling.
But those prices will, no doubt, eventually show up as the asking prices going up. If all EAs went up today and gave valuations of 50% more then Rightmove's next asking price survey would show a 50% increase in asking prices - which means nothing to the market other than deluding already delusional house sellers.
Actually Ray Evans, the story does quote Land Registry price and it is very much the same as Nationwide and Halifax. Three of a kind, and they make asking prices look very expensive.
Has this anything to do with average willy sizes?
Here we go again.......useless averages... quoted by a vested interest modern equivalent to a newspaper advertising space seller.
Also...".there is still an enormous gulf between what sellers want to achieve – on average, £242,097 – and what they are likely to have to accept. Halifax and Nationwide are reporting average sales prices of £161,094 and £164,389...." Averages again - ridiculous! The only thing worth taking on board are regional Land Registry facts.
This index really is the most confusing of the regular house price releases.
Firstly, it measures asking prices, not sold.
Rightmove however calculate the data here solely on new properties listed with them over the last month (actually, more confusingly, the last three weeks of July and first week of August).
It's not accurate to say that 'asking prices have dropped' because this data doesn't include all the other properties which have been listed on Rightmove for more than the last four weeks.
Unlike the Halifax, Nationwide and Land Registry data, it is not seasonally adjusted either, so anything but a fall in the quieter month of August would be a surprise.
Wow 2.4%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Prices have been well and truly slashed. So much so that they wouldn't even qualify as a price reduction on rightmove.
I bet agents offices are full of desperate buyers waiting to get their hands on these "slashed" house prices.
What does this article actually say? House prices dropped in August dramatically by 1.2%, as opposed to 1%, followed up by saying that house prices do generally drop in August. Finished off by Mr Shipsides wise words telling us that estate agents are 'always aiming to win new business'. How terribly informative- glad I made it in today.