U.K. Housing Woes Deepen With First Asking-Price Drop Since 2011

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. asking prices fell from a year earlier for the first time since 2011, led by declines in London and among the most expensive properties..Asking prices slipped 0.2 percent to 302,023 pounds ($387,000), according to Rightmove. Prices were 1.7 percent lower compared with October, the biggest drop for the month since 2012, the property website said on Monday..The property market in Britain is weakening after a three-decade boom in which price growth vastly outstripped wage gains. The uncertainty around the outlook for the U.K.’s divorce from the European Union is also making buyers more cautious and prompting sellers to be less ambitious with asking prices..“Stretched buyer affordability and the cooling markets in the south and in upper price brackets have combined with the ongoing political uncertainty to change pricing optimism into pricing realism,” said Miles Shipside, a director and housing market analyst at Rightmove..In Greater London, asking prices fell 2.4 percent annually to 614,271 pounds. Homes located within Transport for London’s Zone 1, the center of the city, fell the most with a 6.9 percent retreat on the year to an average of 1.3 million pounds..The declines aren’t as dramatic further from the center, where average prices are lower. Values in the outer-most Zone 6 actually rose 3.1 percent from a year ago..Rightmove’s data is compiled from 123,536 asking prices of properties put on sale by agents across the country from Oct. 7 to Nov. 10..To contact the reporter on this story: Anurag Kotoky in London at akotoky@bloomberg.net.To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint, David Goodman.©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

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U.K. Housing Woes Deepen With First Asking-Price Drop Since 2011

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