Almost 30 per cent of London homes are being advertised for sale with reduced asking prices, while realistically valued houses and flats are being sold within just 71 days.
A new report shows that in some parts of the capital a third of sellers have trimmed prices, with more asking prices reduced in west London than any other part of the capital in a price-sensitive market.
While the data doesn't take into account the number of asking prices corrected by estate agents within the first few days of being listed, Rightmove released a report this week warning sellers that they could pay dearly for over-pricing homes.
West London
In the past 10 years, lack of stock and high demand has pushed up housing prices across the capital, while in west London the 'Crossrail effect' has particularly boosted prices, as buyers sought to invest in areas due to benefit from the high-speed link to central London.
"Prices in areas such as Ealing have risen so much due to Crossrail that they couldn't possibly carry on going up at the same rate. We now may be starting to see buyers push back a little as they feel prices have reached unaffordable levels," says Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate agents HouseSimple.com, which provided the data.
Buyers are particularly cautious because of a combination of market uncertainty and last year's stamp duty increases. In recent years, buyers and sellers relied on a market where prices were almost guaranteed to rise by around 20 per cent in a year, but that is no longer the case.
Reduced asking prices are in part a natural correction of a market which is catching up with a slower pace of growth than in recent years.
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