Colder weather and the impending holidays often encourage sellers and their advisors to lower asking prices in hopes of stimulating closed transactions prior to the end of the year. This November, however, fears and anxieties about Brexit fallouts are stimulating the steepest price drops in the united Kingdom since 2012, according to the UK’s largest property portal’s monthly price index, Rightmove.
The average asking price of a newly listed home in London, now $388,254 in November, fell by the greatest percentage, -1.7%, in 6 years. This represents an annual slip of 0.2%.
Sellers of more luxurious, larger homes outside of London rendered this luxury market a buyer’s market by reducing prices -2.9% compared with one month ago. Prices were reduced by -2.1% within the commuter ring around London and Central London’s prices dropped -1.7%.
The UK’s market metrics are now at the lowest levels in 6 years. According to property data by Acadata, the annual price growth across England and Wales is at the lowest point since 2012. Professional sentiment concerning pricing has also slipped to 2012 lows.
According to Richard Freshwater, director of Cheffins Real Estate in Cambridge, “There has been an increase in the number of price reductions this year, but this is partly due to the UK being in the final throes of Brexit negotiations and the uncertainty which this has brought to the market. Those (residences) which have been realistically priced and correctly marketed from the off are still seeing large viewing numbers, offers and in some situations, sealed bids.”
The director of and housing market analyst with Rightmove, Miles Shipside, sees the decline in prices as a positive shift “…as sellers align themselves with buyers’ expectations. This is a welcome effort by sellers to minimize the usual pre-Christmas market slowdown.”
Already, the UK housing market is seeing signs that a cool-down in prices is drawing more buyers…+1% more as compared with last year at this same time.
