Asking prices fall

Monday, 22 June 2009 8:17 AM

Average asking prices of new properties new to the market fell for the first time in five months in June, according to Rightmove.

Despite several surveys suggesting housing price rises over May, new sellers are hesitant and the average asking price fell by 0.4 per cent over the last month to £226,436.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: "It's a mistake to confuse the upturn in enquiries and sales with a return to a more normal market.

"As the best deals on property and mortgages are only open to the equity-rich, the new stock that agents are looking to attract has to match what these purchasers want to buy and can afford.

"Perennially popular areas with good schooling are in, while flats in large blocks and terraces requiring major works are out, meaning new sellers are having to adjust prices accordingly."

Although there has been a ten per cent rise in new sellers over the last three months, there is still a shortage of houses coming onto the market, Rightmove said - and a north-south divide is beginning to grow.

The number of new sellers in the southern regions of the south-east, south-west, East Anglia and Greater London are down by 45.3 per cent on the same period in 2008, while the rest of England and Wales has seen a 40.1 per cent fall.

A combination of lenders' risk bias towards southern deposit-rich buyers and less fresh saleable stock would therefore suggest a speedier price recovery in the south, Rightmove added.

But although equity-rich buyers are snapping up properties, a large sector of the market is still being sidelined, Mr Shipside added.

He said: "Property deals appear within the grasp of cash-strapped first-time buyers, but every rise in fixed rates frustratingly nudges them a bit further out of reach.

"Lenders need to be wary not to choke off the recovery in affordability and activity by punishing the returning buyers with ever widening margins."

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