Sellers lower asking prices

Consumers desperate to sell their homes have reduced the asking price by an average of £4,345 in the last month, according to Rightmove.

The amount of unsold stock has also hit record levels despite falling levels of property coming onto the market.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: “Sellers are finally recognising that they need to undercut their rivals from the outset, rather than testing the market and dropping prices later.

“While this £4,000 reduction is on top of a £3,000 drop last month, sellers’ pricing needs to be at the level where deals are being done. It could be a lot better outcome to price aggressively and sell now, rather than accept a bigger reduction later as prices continue to fall.”

“We are measuring very low levels of new sellers for this time of year, around 20% down on 2007. This has a limiting effect on the supply of unsold property, unlike the US where excessive new build and forced sellers have really flooded the market.

“Price falls in the US market are being driven by rising levels of unemployment and the payment shock of fixed-rate mortgages resetting to unaffordable interest rates. Both of these factors are affecting the UK market, but so far, not to the same extent. Therefore we do not expect to see falls as large as the worst hit areas of the US.”