One-third of all properties currently on the market have had their prices cut – by an average of 6.1%.
Zoopla, reporting the figures, says altogether £1.5bn has been slashed from 32% of the properties it lists. The news comes as Halifax this morning reported that house prices rose 0.6% in July, reversing the 0.6% fall in June. The average house price now stands at £167,425 – 16% below peak levels, and far below today's average asking prices.
Zoopla said that out of the 50 main cities and towns, prices have been cut in 36, with Barnsley topping the list for the number of price cuts: almost half (44%) of Barnsley properties have had their prices cut.
But in many other places, including London, Swindon, Lincoln and Bristol, house prices have also seen the scissors. The highest average price reductions in terms of percentage have all been in the North. In Rotherham, Manchester and Barnsley, average asking prices have been discounted by 7.1%. In Rotherham that represents a £9,442 drop in asking prices, while average prices have been reduced by £11,376 in Manchester and £8,978 in Barnsley.
Average price reductions in the south have been smaller in terms of percentage, but in terms of money, the falls have been significant, with average asking prices in Chelmsford and Brighton both having been reduced by 5.1%, or £18,814 and £19,928 respectively.
In London, 28% of houses have had price cuts, by an average of £37,421.At the top end of the market, for properties with current asking prices of £1m or over, only 22% of properties have been reduced in price since first being put on the market. However, for those properties that have been reduced in this price bracket, the discount is much higher than the average, at 9.6%.
Nick Leeming, Zoopla’s veteran commercial director, said: “Britain is not one uniform housing market, and smaller percentage reductions are clearly evident in some locations in the south of England where the outlook for employment and economic growth is brighter.”
