The monthly index, which tracks the top 25% of the UK market by asking price, shows that Prime asking prices have fallen 1.3% over the past couple of months, knocking an average of £6,234 off the asking price of these sought-after homes over the summer.
In July Prime asking prices fell 0.5% and in August prices declined by a further 0.8%. This brings the current average asking price of UK Prime homes to £476,302.
Analysis of figures for the same period last year showed asking prices moving in the opposite direction, rising by 0.5% in July and 0.1% in August, pushing asking prices up £2,900 during this two month period.
July of this year saw Prime asking prices in five of the UK’s 11 regions fall and in August nine of the 11 UK regions experienced this decline. Yorkshire and the Humber is the only region that experienced Prime price growth in the past two months, equivalent to just 0.1%.
Despite this two-month decline, prices of Prime homes for the UK as a whole are still 1.3% higher than this time in 2011, although this year on year increase has been getting smaller.
In April, the price of Prime homes was 4.8% higher than they had been 12 months before this, but this year on year increase has become gradually smaller every month since.
Lawrence Hall of PrimeLocation.com said: “The market for the UK’s most valuable homes is a resilient and healthy one, which is why this mid-year fall in prices is worth taking note of.
“Owners and potential buyers of the UK’s Prime homes will be keeping an eye on price movements over the coming months as we discover whether this fall in asking prices is a temporary summer lull or whether this is actually sellers getting ready and adjusting prices for the September market.”
LONDON PRIME PROPERTY
Mirroring the performance of the UK Prime property market, London’s Prime asking prices fell for a second consecutive month in August, with this two-month decline wiping £13,997 off the value of London’s most-desired homes.
In July Prime Prices fell 0.2% and in August they fell 0.9%, bringing the average asking price for a Prime home in the Capital to £1,326,716.
Again much like the Prime UK market, the decline in London was more widely felt in August, when 11 of 16 boroughs tracked by the index saw prices fall, than in July when 8 of the 16 saw Prime prices decline.
Compared to this time last year, asking prices for London Prime homes are still up 16.3%.
Hall added: “A £13,997 fall in the price of a home is a huge amount of money and a great opportunity for potential buyers to grab a bargain, but it’s important to remember just how solid the London Prime property market is. It would be naive to overlook any two-month price decline but Prime homeowners shouldn’t be alarmed, the market is strong, demand is high and asking prices are still significantly more than this time last year.”
