House asking prices slip back in June
THE average asking price of a UK property has fallen by 0.4 per cent this month, according to data from property website Rightmove, ending the string of good housing data over the past few weeks.
June marked the first fall in five months due to hesitation by sellers and continued tight credit conditions. But on a monthly basis a number of regions have seen an upturn in asking prices compared with May.
In 2009, prices are up by 6 per cent as the buyers with large deposits snap up properties left on the market. The price rise has benefited the south of England the most.
In Greater London new sellers have only marked down their asking prices by 0.5 per cent in June compared to a year earlier, suggesting an improvement of conditions in the capital, where the year-to-date supply of new-to-market properties is down 52.3 per cent compared to the same period in 2008.
But while the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ data showed buyer enquiries rising for the seventh consecutive month in May, Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said it is a mistake to confuse the upturn in enquiries and sales with a return to a more normal market. He said: “While conditions are much improved on the darkest days of last year, we are now starting to see some big distortions and wild swings due to the combined effects of recession and restricted mortgage availability.”
Nationwide housing market data, due out later this week, is expected to announce that house prices have fallen by 0.4 per cent in June from May, while the British Bankers Association is forecast to report tomorrow that mortgage approvals rose to 30,000 in May 2009.