(LONDON) Asking prices for British homes fell for the first time this year in July, lowering the annual rate of growth to 3.7 per cent from 5 per cent in June, property website Rightmove showed yesterday.
Rightmove blamed the weakening on a rise in the number of homes coming up for sale, which had allowed buyers to gain the upper hand.
'The number of new mortgages being approved each month is less than half the number of new sellers,' said Miles Shipside, Rightmove's commercial director. 'Conditions are ripe for a strong buyers' market in the second half of 2010.'
Rightmove said the supply of properties coming up for sale was up almost 50 per cent compared with the same period last year while many buyers were still struggling to get mortgages. It predicted that asking price gains of around 7 per cent in the first half of this year would be wiped out by falls in the second half as a public spending squeeze and a weaker economic outlook weigh on confidence. -- Reuters
Source: Business Times, 20 Jul 2010
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