Home sellers slash prices by 2.9% in bid to find buyers before Christmas » Housing » 24dash.com

New home sellers have slashed their asking prices by 2.9% during the past month in a bid to find a buyer before Christmas, figures showed today.

The average home coming on to the market in England and Wales cost £222,979 during the four weeks to November 8 - 7.1% less than a year ago, according to property website Rightmove.

The group said the 2.9% fall was the biggest monthly drop it had ever recorded for November, but it warned that new sellers were still failing to price their properties realistically.

It said estate agents reported that homes were currently selling for around 20% less than asking prices reached at their peak.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: "Some sellers could avoid months of disillusionment and despair if they started marketing at an asking price a lot closer to where the evidence indicates they are likely to end up.

"While average asking prices have fallen by 7.1% over the past year, in most parts of the country you should look to at least double that discount to achieve a sale."

An average of just 20,000 people a week put their property up for sale during the period, the lowest level recorded by Rightmove since 2002, and well down on a level of around 35,000 a week 12 months ago.

Rightmove said the low level of sellers suggested that people were not currently under pressure to sell their home, with many unwilling to enter the market until the outlook for prices had improved.

The trend for sellers to sit on their hands has led to a decline in the average number of properties estate agents have on their books, with this sliding to 73 in October.

This reduction is not only being driven by people waiting to sell, but also by vendors withdrawing their homes from the market unsold, which has in turn contributed to a fall in the number of days homes are on the market for to 87 days, down from 90 days.

But the group said the lowest Bank of England base rate since 1955 and the expectation of further aggressive cuts to come, was likely to lead to a greater volume of sales in 2009.

It said buyers that were currently cash rich or mortgage-ready, already faced a tempting combination of low borrowing costs and sellers willing to do deals.

Mainstream buyers are still being forced out of the market by restrictions on mortgage availability and demands by lenders for big deposits.

But the group expects this to start to ease next year, releasing pent up demand which will be fuelled by historically cheap borrowing and cheaper property.

The North was the only region of England and Wales not to see price falls during the month, with prices there rising by 1.3%.

The West Midlands saw the biggest slide in asking prices with these dropping by 5.6% during the four weeks, while they fell by 5.4% in Yorkshire and Humberside.

On an annual basis, Wales has seen the biggest drop in prices of 11.2%, followed by a slide of 9.3% in the North West.