Buyers eye up Christmas offers as prices slip in November

Homeowners hoping to sell their house are slashing prices and expectations, in a move that signals a boon for buyers in the run-up to the festive season.

Property prices tumbled 1.7 per cent this month, marking the largest November drop since 2012, with London’s stagnant housing market continuing to see a sharper decline than any other UK region.

While prices typically edge down ahead of the Christmas period, today’s data from Rightmove signals a higher-than-usual drop as sellers lower their demands in a bid to lure in cautious buyers amid Brexit uncertainty and wage stagnation.

Inner London’s house prices saw the sharpest monthly fall, with values from October to November dropping 2.5 per cent to an average £754, 726. However, the lowering of prices has signalled a slight uptick in activity, with a modest one per cent rise in the number of November sales compared with the same month last year.

“Some new-to-the-market sellers and their agents have acted early to try to improve the buying mood and avoid the traditional “buyer humbug” dislike of Christmas housing activity,” according to Rightmove director Miles Shipside.

He added: “While many thought that the down-to-the-wire Brexit deal uncertainty would hold people back from buying, more buyers have actually jumped in. Some buyers see this pre-Christmas price lull as a gift to their negotiations. It proves that people need to get on with their lives and will continue to buy homes if the underlying economic fundamentals remain strong.”

Prime Central London’s market has seen one of the most noticeable price drops in the last 12 months, underlined by a slowdown in high end residential areas such as Kensington.

Stamp duty and market volatility have helped deter a swathe of wealthy buyers looking to snap up homes in the capital, with a recent LonRes study showing prices across prime London dipped three per cent in the third quarter of 2018 in the wake of greater buyer uncertainty.