Rightmove Reports a 2.2% Decline in Asking Prices

According to the Rightmove Plc, the beginning of August was marked by lowered asking prices on UK property. The latest data shows that an average British house is now being priced at £222,762, which is 2.2% lower than last month, when property prices rose by 0.6%. House values in the capital of Great Britain fell by as much as 3.8%. Rightmove’s commercial director, Mr. Miles Shipside is determined that the British property market, house prices and consumer demand in particular, are being hampered by the restrictive lending policy of UK banks, which explain it by a necessity to ration mortgages. Let us remind that last week, on August 12th, Mr. Mervyn King, Governor at the Bank of England claimed that the world still remains in the state of deep recession, which might mean that UK lenders will need to raise more capital. After that, the Bank of England voted to expand the quantitative easing programme with another £ 50 billion. Rightmove’s report also suggests that the number of marketed properties fell by 48% in comparison with 2007. The most significant decline in asking prices was marked in the East Midlands, where it reached 9%. As for London, property values saw the strongest decrease, which constituted 7.6%, in Haringey; it was followed by Merton with a 6.4% decline. The expensive district of Islington witnessed a 6.1% fall in house prices. In its report, Rightmove, however, stressed that buyers’ confidence in the property market has improved as the majority of people buying or moving houses believe that the value of their new property will not decline in the next year. Although Rightmove’s data is somewhat optimistic and suggests the British market is heading towards its recovery, the growing rate of unemployment might hamper the opportunities of UK house buyers. Let us remind that according to the data published by the Office for National Statistics on August 12th, the rate of joblessness in the UK reached its peak in a time period of 14 years.