House prices in Olympic slump
House prices were clobbered in their biggest ever August fall, as the Olympics depressed housing market activity, said Rightmove in research published today.
Prices fell 2.4 per cent, the largest fall Rightmove has ever recorded for August. Online search activity plunged during key Olympic moments such as “super Saturday” and the opening and closing ceremonies, Rightmove said. This fall added to the 1.7 per cent contraction seen in July, but prices remain two per cent up on the year, and 92.2 per cent higher than all the way back in 2002.
London’s market was typically strong, performing better than the country as a whole despite the impact of the Olympics. Prices fell by half as much as the headline figure, a decline that was unable to reverse the 8.8 per cent year-on-year expansion.
But asking prices in Newham, the main Olympic borough, have grown less than half as fast as London houses on average since the capital secured the Olympics in July 2005.
Other data, released by Knight Frank and Markit yesterday, revealed a north-south divide in house price perceptions and expectations.
While most households believe their houses have declined in value over the past month, those in the north expect further falls, whereas southerners expect prices to recover.