Thank you for your participation. Home sellers are being forced to cut their asking prices by more than 10% as interest rates soar and the market stagnates.
According to property website Zoopla, a fifth of sellers have reduced their prices by more than a tenth.
In London and the South East, the proportion of sellers accepting discounts of this size rises to almost one in four.
The housing market is struggling following the cost of living crisis, forcing the Bank of England to raise interest rates to the highest level in 16 years. As a result, mortgage costs have soared.
But Zoopla has found some reasons for optimism. Buyer demand increased by 12%, with the largest increase in London being 21%.
Contract sales also increased nationally, up 13% compared to the same period last year, with sales increasing in all regions.
Zoopla says this shows that buyers and sellers are more aligned on pricing.
“This improved activity will support sales volumes reaching 1 million units in 2023, an 11-year low,” said Zoopla executive director Richard Donnell.
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what happened overnight
Chinese stocks led gains in Asian shares at the start of the week after regulators introduced new measures to support markets over the weekend.
Oil prices have risen in response to escalating violence in the Middle East, including a missile attack by Yemen’s Houthis that caused a fire on a fuel tanker in the Red Sea, and a drone strike in Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers.
The dollar and Treasury yields hovered in the middle of their recent ranges ahead of the highly anticipated Federal Reserve policy meeting later this week.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shares rose 1.4% and a sub-index of mainland real estate stocks rose 3.6% after China’s securities regulator announced on Sunday a total suspension of restricted stock lending. .
Regional stocks had already started the day solidly, but rose further after Hong Kong opened, with South Korea’s Kospi gaining 1.2% and Australia’s equity benchmark rising 0.4%.
The Tokyo stock market closed higher as investors cheered the strength of US stocks as the Dow hit a new record high.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.8%, or 275.87 points, to 36,026.94, while the broader Topix index rose 1.3%, or 31.83 points, to 2,529.48.