By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) -Asking prices for newly advertised British houses and apartments recorded their biggest July fall in more than 20 years this month, property site Rightmove said on Monday.
Prices for property put on sale during Rightmove’s July period – which runs from June 8 to July 12 – were 1.2% lower than for property marketed a month earlier, the biggest June to July drop since the series began in late 2001.
Compared with a year ago, asking prices were 0.1% higher.
“With the number of available homes still at a decade-high level, summer sellers are pricing even more competitively to attract buyer interest,” Rightmove said.
British property sales surged earlier this year but then fell sharply after the end of a temporary tax break on many purchases in April.
“Discerning buyers can quickly spot when a home looks over-priced compared to the many others that may be available in their area,” Rightmove property expert Colleen Babcock said.
While sales volumes are still running at around 5% above 2024 levels, Rightmove said it was cutting its forecast for price rises over 2025 as a whole to 2% from 4% due to the high level of competition between sellers. Overall, Rightmove expects 1.15 million property sales in 2025.
Prices fell most in inner London, which saw a 2.1% monthly drop, while the biggest rise was in northeast England where there was a 1.2% rise.
Earlier this month Nationwide Building Society, Britain’s second-biggest mortgage lender, said its house price index dropped by 0.8% in June, the biggest seasonally adjusted monthly fall since November 2022.
Official data, which is based on completed purchases, showed that house prices in May were 3.9% higher than a year earlier, down sharply from annual growth of 7.0% in March.
Rightmove said smaller price rises, combined with strong pay growth and lower mortgage rates, were making property purchases more affordable. Typical mortgage rates for a two-year fixed period have dropped to 4.53% from 5.34% over the past year, while average wages rose 5.0% in the year to May.
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Suban Abdulla)
