Turmoil persists as the UK property market adapts to rising interest rates, according to property website Home.co.uk’s December Asking Price Index.

Supply and demand are both being reshaped in the face of costlier mortgages. The Index shows higher prices, a result of the COVID boom, are being trimmed and many more vendors are withdrawing their properties from the market, especially the more costly ones.

 New instructions are also being priced more conservatively and this, combined with the surge in withdrawals and price cutting, has hit hard.
 
The national average asking price dropped 2.4% in a single month, which is a greater fall than in any month following the 2008 financial crisis.
 
The supply of new instructions remains within the normal range, indicating there is not a panic-driven flood of sellers. The total stock of unsold property has been recovering over recent months from the all-time low set in February but remains a long way off the 10-year average.
   
In terms of momentum and stock levels, Greater London stands apart from other regions. While sales stock has increased 52.4% across mainland UK over the last twelve months, the total in London has risen a mere 9.9%.
  
Scotland has the quickest market, with the Typical Time on Market a mere 13 days. There are currently less than half the number of properties available to let north of the border than there were in pre-pandemic December 2019.
   
The annualised mix-adjusted average asking price growth across England and Wales is now at 1.5%: in December 2021, the annualised rate of increase of home prices was 7.2%. This radical change serves to show the extraordinary change in the property market during 2022.