It’s the number of homes changing hands rather than their price that’s bearing the brunt of the slowdown say research chiefs at lettings agency Hamptons.
With fewer homes coming onto the market, buyers are facing less choice than they were a couple of months ago, which in turn is putting a floor under prices, according to Aneisha Beveridge, Head of Research at Hamptons.
She says average home sold in England and Wales last month achieved 99.1 per cent of its final asking price, up from 98.5 per cent in August.
This meant that sellers achieved closer to their asking price than in any month since October last year. While both mortgaged and cash buyers paid closer to the asking price, the biggest uplift came from those reliant on borrowing.
As the number of lenders cutting rates gained momentum, buyers with the largest deposits were once again able to lock in sub five per cent rates.
More affordable homes, where buyers are most likely to use a mortgage, saw a bigger monthly improvement in the ratio of asking to achieved prices than the top end of the market, says the agency.
The share of homes coming onto the market and selling within a week also rose in September – 9.5 per cent of all homes that came onto the market across Britain went under offer within a week, up from 6.2 per cent in August and 7.0 per cent during the same time last year.
Despite this improvement, the average home that sold last month had been on the market for 57 days, making it the slowest September to sell a home in Britain since 2012.
Hamptons says this reflects the fact that some homes that had been on the market for a while went on to sell last month. One-bed homes saw the smallest year-on-year increase in the time it took to sell (five days longer) whereas it took around a month longer to sell the average four bed home.
Want to comment on this story? Our focus is on providing a platform for you to share your insights and views and we welcome contributions.
If any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.
Please help us by reporting comments you consider to be unduly offensive so we can review and take action if necessary. Thank you.
.png)
.jpg)
%20(002).png)
.png)
Join the conversation
Jump to latest comment and add your reply
I have had one of my houses on the market for over 3 months and reduced it three times and still no real interest.
In times like these, buyers are hoping for a large fall in prices, so that they can pick up a bargain.
There is a limit to what you can go down and I am not prepared to sell at way below market price.
"What goes around comes around', so I shall just wait until values recover.
I have bought and sold this year. Everything finds it's price depending on local market conditions. It's always the seller's prerogative not to sell if they don't need to and to wait until things improve. I would say there is massive variation between regions and even within regions as to how much prices are falling.
I am optimistic that in a year the base rates will reduced and the sales market will improve. The buyers will wait but how long? There is not a lot for sale now.
I'm with you on this Vibha, it still does depend on the base rate but the B of E and the Government are really tip toeing through the daisy's currently.
In my view some brave movement from the Bank of England to drop rates by 0.25 in order to give business confidence. It is imperative that the economy becomes the focus.
Please login to comment