Lack of mortgage financing for buyers has caused a sharp rise in unsold inventory in the United Kingdom’s property market, according to Rightmove’s latest report. There are twice as many new properties on the market as this time last year. Asking prices in May fell slightly by 0.4 percent.
The annual rate of increase of asking prices decreased from 6 percent to 4.3 percent, suggesting that the real estate market is cooling after months of price increases. In comparison, demand in 2009 far surpassed supply, causing buyers to snap up available properties and prices to rise.
“Sellers are starting to reduce their pricing expectations to court the fewer buyers who are able to proceed, though the number of buyers who can purchase is too low to bring volume back to the housing market,’”said Miles Shipside, Rightmove’s commercial director.
Lenders continue to demand large deposits and high credit worthiness. “There aren’t enough ready and able buyers to soak up a surge in fresh stock,” Shipside added.
Property advertised on Rightmove’s web site reportedly accounts for 90% of properties for sale in Britain. Over the last month the company has been recording in excess of 30,000 new listings a week, the greatest since the week starting June 28, 2009.
