Rightmove says regional markets used to mirror the national picture – but that’s no longer the case. 

Nowhere demonstrates that more than London where the number of available homes for sale is the highest in 16 years, outpacing the national trend, and meaning even more competition for sellers to find buyers. 

London is also facing a unique set of circumstances beyond just supply and demand trends which is creating challenges for some movers. 

Rightmove warns that in terms of affordability, despite wage growth out-performing property price growth in recent years, an average home in London still costs around 17 times the national average annual wage. 

London is also priced 38% higher than the second-highest priced region the South East. 

And the portal adds that while high prices in London are nothing new, when combined with elevated mortgage rates, it’s a reminder of just how affordability-stretched London buyers are.  

The capital is also home to a greater share of flats – many being sold by landlords quitting the rental sector – which while providing a crucial route to home-ownership for many, come with additional cost considerations and wariness from some buyers, and can lead to longer selling times and lower prices.

Yet Rightmove today records that 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.

More generally, Rightmove says the average asking price of a newly-listed home coming to the market for sale has dropped 2.0% in just one month.

Prices usually fall in August, but the portal says this is a much larger August price drop than the ten-year average of -1.3%, and the largest since 2018. 

And to cap it all, the portal has now downgraded its price prediction for 2026 as a whole. Instead of a 2% rise, it says prices will stagnate or could even fall 2% on average.