The average house price in Britain fell by 0.5 per cent in October, says Rightmove.
This equates to a fall of £1,505 and, according to Rightmove, is due to new sellers coming to market to “beat the March stamp duty deadline.”
The average asking price is now £322,025 by Rightmove’s calculations, which is a 6.3 per cent increase on October 2019.
Rightmove adds that national sales agreed numbers are up 50 per cent on an annual basis, with an estimated 650,000 sales going through the buying and selling process currently – a 67 per cent increase on last year.
The decrease in the average price, “Could be a result of some new sellers pricing more realistically to have a better chance of agreeing a sale in time to benefit from the stamp duty savings on their onward purchase,” says Rightmove director of property data Tim Bannister.
“We know from a recent Rightmove study that sellers are twice as likely to sell if they agree a sale based on the first price at which their property goes on the market, something that’s even more important now as we move towards the end of March and the end of the stamp duty holiday.
“If your initial asking price is too high then you’re less likely to get an offer even after you’ve cut your price back to a more realistic level,” he says.
North London estate agent Jeremy Leaf says: “History is repeating itself. Additional restrictions and the threat of another lockdown have delayed – not halted – property moves as buyers and sellers once again demonstrate their determination to negotiate hard and take maximum advantage of the stamp duty holiday.
“Nearly all are acutely aware that delays in arranging mortgages, valuations and conveyancing will mean meeting the 31 March deadline won’t be easy, even if deals are agreed in the next few weeks.
“We have also noticed that the prospect of a vaccine has given an extra boost to viewings this week, even though it is still very early days. But on the other hand, this may make some sellers less likely to accept what they regard as unrealistic offers.”
