Pain forecast for sellers as house prices fall again

Home sellers have slashed more than £3,000 off the asking price of the average property in the last month, according to the latest report to highlight a turning point in the market.

Home sellers have slashed more than £3,000 off the asking price of the average property in the last month, according to the latest report to highlight a turning point in the market.

The average house price dropped by 1.7 per cent, or £3,200, to £190,329 in the four weeks to 13 November, accord-ing to the property website Rightmove. That is the second largest fall this year.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove's commercial director, said the market was going through a "natural adjustment". "We're going to see a couple of painful months for sellers as the market finds a level at which buyers are confident again," he said.

Rightmove said the latest fall, combined with a 2 per cent drop in August, showed a correction that was much greater than falls of 0.1 to 1.1 per cent picked up by other reports. It said its figures better reflected the current state of the market as asking prices are set some three months before the mortgage is approved and some six months before the transaction is logged with the Land Registry.

The report comes hard on the heels of a 0.6 per cent fall reported by Hometrack, a rival website. However, Rightmove played down fears of a slump, saying the fundamentals of the market looked solid.

By regions, the biggest fall was 4.0 per cent in Yorkshire, followed by 2.5 per cent in the South-east and 2.0 per cent in London. The biggest single drop was a 5.7 per cent fall in Hounslow, west London, followed by 4.5 per cent in Blackpool, 4.4 per cent in Guildford and 4.1 per cent in Bournemouth.