House price down 0.5% on the year

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by Gill Montia

House prices in England and Wales have fallen for the first time in seven months with the typical home losing 0.1% during July and registering a year-on-year decline of 0.5%.

According to Hometrack, the usual seasonal slowdown and a weakening economy have impacted buyer demand, notably in London and the South East.

Nationally demand fell by 2.1% in July – the South East saw the greatest decline (-3.4%) and London also registered an above average fall in new buyer registrations (-2.4%).

However, the number of new properties coming to market grew by 1.4%, taking the quarterly increase to 5.2%.

Looking ahead, Hometrack expects the gap between supply and demand to widen over the summer months resulting in further modest price falls from now into the autumn.

Prices fell across eight out of ten regions in July, with London the only region to register a price increase (up 0.1%).

Across England and Wales, the proportion of asking price achieved held steady at 93.1% and vendors typically had to wait 9.5 weeks to secure a sale (June 9.4 weeks).