BT : UK house asking prices fall in August

Business Times - 16 Aug 2010

UK house asking prices fall in August

LONDON - Asking prices for homes in England and Wales fell by 1.7 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent higher than a year ago, above July's 3.7 per cent annual growth rate but below the 5.0 per cent seen in June.

The West Midlands saw the biggest monthly price fall, down 4.4 per cent, closely followed by London with a 4.1 per cent 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 Aug 7, which it says covers 90 per cent of property marketed via estate agents in England and Wales. -- REUTERS

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