Sellers face an almost impossible task in selling their house with less than half as many buyers according to the latest Rightmove House Price Index.
Buyer numbers remain incredibly low despite sellers dropping their asking price by an average of 1.7 per cent, £4,138, the first month-on-month drop since January and the largest drop recorded by Rightmove since July 2008.
Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: “Those keen to sell this summer have the challenging confluence of miserable viewing weather, the continuing credit-crunch plus a sporting distraction of Olympic proportions. Those who have been on the market for many months might consider the prospects of achieving a sale to be somewhat of an Olympian challenge given that actual sales completions are just half what they were five years ago. “
While the month-on-month asking price has dropped, the year-on-year increase is quite different, with an increase of 2.3 per cent.
The number of average sales completions, 56,220, is also well down when compared to the amount of new properties that have been placed on the market during the same period, 102,121.
Rightmove’s survey also looked into the introcacies of selling a house and found that sellers have very little time to make a “first impression” on potential buyers, who take just 2.7 seconds judging a sellers summary advert before deciding to take things further.
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