Asking prices for homes drops in November

In total, it dropped by 1.7% or £6,088 in the month to £362,143 as sellers continue to adopt more pricing realism to attract a buyer. This has also made it the largest November drop in five years, with indicators pointing to a market that, while challenging, has been more positive than many predicted.

Despite this, new seller asking prices are now just three percent behind May’s peak and this relatively small fall in asking prices – coupled with stable numbers of new properties coming to the market each month – are strong indicators that forced sales are not widespread.

Meanwhile, the number of sales being agreed is now 10% below the same period 2019 – an improvement on the 15% below figure seen last month. The pandemic-driven stock shortage also now appears to be over – with the number of available homes for sale just one percent behind this time in 2019.

Rightmove’s director of property science Tim Bannister said: “We’d expect to see a drop in new seller asking prices in the last couple of months of the year, as serious sellers start to separate themselves from discretionary sellers and cut through the Christmas noise with an attractive price to secure a buyer.  

“However, the larger than usual drop this month signals that among the usual pricing seasonality, we are starting to see more new sellers heed their agents’ advice and come to market with more enticing prices to stand out from their over-optimistic competition.

“Buyers are still out there, but for many their affordability is much reduced due to higher mortgage rates. It now looks like more sellers are understanding Rightmove’s research; that the chances of securing a buyer are much greater if they price right the first time, rather than over-pricing and reducing their price later.”