UK House Prices Post Biggest Aug. Drop As Olympics Deter Home Buyers

MT5-House prices in the U.K. fell for a second consecutive month in August, recording the biggest-ever fall for the month as home buyers disengaged themselves from property search during key Olympic events.
New sellers' reduced asking prices by an average 2.4 percent from a month earlier to GBP236,260 in August, Rightmove said Monday. This followed a 1.7 percent dip in July and was the the largest August fall Rightmove has ever recorded.
The Olympics distraction did not deter new sellers from coming to market during August, with numbers marginally up from the same period a year ago. According to Rightmove, the number of properties coming to the market increased 0.4 percent annually to 127,992.
House prices in London fell 1.2 percent month-over-month in August to GBP454,875. This was, however, 8.8 percent higher than a year earlier. Property prices fell 2.6 percent month-on-month in Wales.
Sellers who come to market in the middle of the summer holiday season often have an urgent reason to sell and traditionally set their asking prices aggressively lower, the report said. However, the latest decline is substantial compared to the average fall of 1.1 percent measured in August over the last 10 years, the property website said.
In a report released last week, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) also reported a decline in house prices in August.
The recent Halifax house price survey showed that house prices were down 0.4 percent month-on-month in August and 0.7 percent in July.

Published: 2012-09-17 04:38:00 UTC+00 18 hours, 50 min. ago