Rightmove market snapshot - latest on asking prices and volumes

The average price of homes coming to the market have dipped slightly once again, according to Rightmove.

The newly-marketed properties are some 0.2 per cent or £900 lower this month, marginally below the ‘static’ 0.0 per cent norm for this time of year as new sellers temper their price expectations in response to recent Base Rate rises and increasing buyer affordability constraints. 

Price trends have proved more resilient than most expected during the first half of the year, with average asking prices still around 2.6 per cent higher than in January, the portal claims. 

However, the brakes on the economy being applied by the Bank of England to combat inflation are biting, with the number of sales agreed in June now being 12 per cent behind 2019’s more normal market level, contrasting with the surprisingly strong first five months of the year. 

Buyer demand remains resilient, though, being 3.0 per cent higher than at this time in 2019, with agents reporting that right-priced homes are still attracting motivated buyers due to the shortage of property for sale compared to historic norms.

Transaction volumes have been hit though.

The numbers of sales agreed in June in the mid-market ‘second-stepper’ sector and the well-heeled ‘top-of-the-ladder’ sector are 14 per cent behind 2019’s level. Rightmove suggests that some discretionary movers in these sectors who are trading up and are substantially increasing their mortgage are likely reassessing their budgets, waiting to see which direction mortgage rates head in the coming months.

The smaller home, two-bedrooms and fewer market sector has been less impacted, with June’s sales agreed figure 9.0 per cent below 2019’s level. This typical first-time buyer sector has held up most strongly throughout the first half of the year, highlighting an ongoing determination from many first-time buyers to navigate the unsettled mortgage market and get onto the ladder, particularly with rents at record levels. 

It is also an indication of some people deciding to retire early and downsize to a smaller property, perhaps to release some equity from their home for lifestyle or early retirement, or to gift a deposit to family first-time buyers.

The portal adds that despite this easing in sales levels there is no glut of property choice, with the number of available properties for sale 12 per cent lower than at the same time in 2019. 

Agents report that even with market challenges, homes priced correctly in line with local market conditions are still attracting strong interest from motivated buyers keen to move. However, the dangers of sellers initially over-pricing and harming their prospects of finding a buyer are highlighted by the latest Rightmove research.  

Properties that need a reduction in asking price are more than 10 per cent less likely to find a buyer than those that were priced right from the start. With the chances of selling already lower due to current market conditions, initial over-pricing reduces those chances markedly further.

“Sellers who price right the first time, rather than starting with too high an asking price only to reduce later, have a much better chance of attracting one of these motivated buyers, and a good local agent will provide sellers with accurate evidence of prices that are being achieved in their area” says Rightmove spokesperson Tim Bannister.

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