Rightmove: Lack of sellers will keep house prices stable in 2012
Monday, 19 December 2011 03:41
Rightmove has predicted little change in house prices next year as both buyers and sellers continue to face a challenging market.
The organisation said people had cut their asking prices by 2.7 per cent between November and December 2011, meaning property costs are only up by 1.5 per cent on those seen at the end of 2010.
It said the housing market is likely to remain difficult in 2012, with an expected increase of just two per cent for the year.
However, Rightmove pointed out that some areas will prove anomalous, with plenty of properties available at lower prices than the national average.
There are only likely to be around 1.2 million new sellers next year, which is down one-third on the figure seen before the recession in 2007.
This was blamed on a difficulty in finding good mortgages and people being unwilling to move house while there are so many financial problems in Britain and on the continent.
"We have had a few years of testing the resilience of the bottom of the market. There remains a high level of uncertainty overhanging the market due to the ongoing eurozone crisis," said Rightmove's Miles Shipside.
This comes after the same organisation said last month that there had been a sharp decrease in house prices during October 2011, with sellers having to drop their asking prices by an average of £7,528.
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