UK property sellers cut the prices they’re asking at the sharpest pace since December, adding to evidence that soaring interest rates are weighing on the ability of buyers to afford purchases.
The property portal Rightmove said its index tracking the cost of homes coming to market fell 1.9% to £364,895 this month. It was the biggest decline for August since 2018 and the sharpest drop since the end of last year, when sellers were trying to wrap up deals.
The figures are among the most forward-looking evidence of weakness in the housing market, which strengthened earlier in the year but more recently has lost momentum. Mortgage lenders say prices are now falling at some of the sharpest rates since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, and surveyors say estate agents have turned more gloomy in recent weeks.
Mortgage lending rates have surged to the highest in more than a decade after 14 consecutive hikes from the Bank of England. Policy makers are struggling to contain inflation that remains more than triple the 2% target. The number of sales by Rightmove’s measure is now 15% below pre-pandemic levels in 2019. That reflects both a drop in buyer interest and a 10% fell in the number of properties on the market.
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