Asking prices fall 3.2% on winter slowdown and Hip roll-out
by Gill Montia
Latest figures from Rightmove show a 3.2% decrease in the asking price for a UK home, in the past month.
The fall leaves the average asking price for a house at £232,396, a drop of £7,590 on the previous month.
The property website attributes the shift to the traditional slowdown for the time of year and the full roll-out of Home Information Packs (Hips).
Last week, the Hip scheme was extended to cover one and two-bedroom properties, contributing an estimated 1.1% to the fall whilst also bringing “further confusion at a sensitive time for the property market”.
According to Rightmove’s data, the proportion of properties with two bedrooms or less on the market in December 2006 stood at 38%, however in the week to 2nd December 2007, the figure increased to 48%.
London properties saw the biggest dip in asking prices (6.8%), as during the month a large number of one and two-bedroom homes were placed on the market at keen prices.
Rightmove spokesman, Miles Shipside, comments: “New listings are low at this time of year so the artificial wave of ‘low-end’ sellers has really distorted the average prices of properties new to the market.”
He goes on to describe house sales as entering “uncharted territory” because of the continued credit squeeze but expects a period of price stagnation in 2008, rather than a crash.
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