The average price of a home in England and Wales has fallen by almost £3,600 in August, as Brexit uncertaintycombines with the summer holiday slowdown.
The £3,602 month-on-month fall in the price of property coming to market took the average asking price across England and Wales to £304,222, the property website Rightmove said.
Despite the decrease, the average asking price is still 4.1% higher than it was a year ago.
Rightmove said the 1.2% month-on-month fall was in line with average decreases usually seen during the summer holidays, but it predicted that 2016 would be a “year of two halves” for the housing market.
The surge in buyers in the first half of the year as buy-to-let investors rushed to beat a stamp duty increase on 1 April meant many purchases had been brought forward that might otherwise have taken place later in the year.
Rightmove’s director, Miles Shipside, said: “Many prospective buyers take a summer break from home-hunting, and those who come to market at this quieter time of year tend to price more aggressively.”
“This summer is also affected by both Brexit uncertainty and the aftermath of the buy-to-let rush in March to beat the stamp duty deadline.”
Larger family-sized homes with four bedrooms or more would benefit the most from any autumn pick-up in activity, Rightmove said. Such properties currently take an average of 74 days to sell, while the smaller homes favoured by first-time buyers and people taking their second step on the property ladder typically take 58 days.
The figures also show that the north-east of England is the only region where asking prices are lower in August than a year earlier. The average asking price in the region is £147,330, 1.2% down on August 2015.
The east of England has seen the biggest percentage rise in asking prices over the last year, with an average asking price of £334,951, 8.2% higher than in August 2015.
In London, asking prices fell by 2.6% in August – the biggest month-on-month dip of all regions. The average asking price in London is £619,409, 2.1% higher than a year ago.
In Wales, asking prices edged down by 0.2% month-on-month to reach £180,425 on average.
Yorkshire and Humber and the West Midlands were the only regions to buck the trend of a month-on-month fall, with asking prices increasing by 1.2% and 1.1% respectively.
Rightmove said the southern regions, which tend to be influenced by the London market, had seen bigger jumps in the length of time it takes to sell a property than northern regions over the last couple of months.
The time it takes to sell a home in London increased by five days between May and July. In the south-east and the south-west the increase was four days and in the east of England three days.
Shipside said: “It will be welcome news for some northerners that the traditional north-south divide may be taking a rare turn in their favour.”
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