U.K. Home Prices Dip as Sellers Rush to Capture Tax Break

(Bloomberg) -- Asking prices for U.K. homes slipped this month as owners sought to get sales agreed in time to benefit from a temporary tax cut.

Average advertised prices fell 0.5% from October to 322,025 pounds ($424,000), property website Rightmove said Monday. They are still up 6.3% from a year earlier, the biggest increase in over four years.

Activity in the market is booming as buyers and sellers look to get transactions completed before the end of a reduction in a levy on home purchases in the spring.

The property website estimates there are 650,000 sales in progress, 67% more than at the same time in 2019. More expensive southern regions are seeing the biggest surge.

The entire industry ground to a halt during the U.K.’s national lockdown earlier this year. New restrictions introduced this month stop short of preventing viewings and Rightmove now predicts annual price growth of 7% in 2020.

“Prices might have been expected to rise again this month, but instead we have a slight dip,” said Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data. That “could be a result of some new sellers pricing more realistically to have a better chance of agreeing a sale in time to benefit from the stamp duty savings.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.