The average asking price of a newly-listed home coming to the market for sale falls by 2.0% (-£7,360) this month to £364,999.
Prices usually fall in August, but this is a much larger August price drop than the ten-year average of -1.3%, and the largest since 2018. The number of available homes for sale is at a 12-year high for this time of year.
When combined with the traditionally quiet summer holiday period, this has led to lower price expectations from sellers who have decided to come to market at this time of year, despite the lower volume of active buyers.
Encouragingly, it appears that these sellers are taking the advice of both estate agents and Rightmove, and entering the market at competitive prices, giving themselves a much higher probability of selling.
The average asking price for a home is now 1.0% lower than at this time last year, the largest annual drop in prices since December 2023.
Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, commented: “This month’s larger-than-usual August price drop is a sign that many sellers are recognising the reality of the market and pricing much more competitively from day one. Buyers have the widest choice of homes for sale at this time of year in more than a decade, so standing out on price for the right reasons is hugely important.
“While no seller likes to come to market lower than they might have hoped, Rightmove analysis shows that those who price realistically are statistically proven to be giving themselves the strongest chance of finding a buyer and successfully completing a move. One tactic some sellers are using when considering lower offers on their home, is to also make a lower offer themselves on their onwards purchase, to see if they can make up the difference.”
National averages are helpful in identifying trends over time, but increasingly this year they are masking a divided regional picture for property price growth.
The northern regions of England have actually seen average new seller asking prices increase by 1.5% versus last year, while the southern regions of England have seen prices drop by 1.8%. London has seen the biggest yearly fall in prices of any part of Great Britain at -3.1%.
Conversely, prices in the North West are up the most, by 1.9% annually. Average prices are also higher in Scotland compared to last year, and only marginally down in the Midlands and Wales.
