According to new data from Rightmove, housing prices in the UK are taking a dip from their record highs.
As sellers rush ahead of the stamp duty deadline, the property website found a 0.5% fall from October’s average asking price of £323,000.
Since Rishi Sunak introduced the stamp duty holiday over summer, the housing market has seen a boom.
“Given the ongoing mini-boom, prices might have been expected to rise again this month,” said Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data.
“But instead we have a slight dip, which could be a result of some new sellers pricing more realistically to have a better chance of agreeing a sale in time to benefit from the stamp duty savings on their onward purchase.”
The stamp duty holiday is expected to end at the end of March. Rightmove has said that sellers should be more realistic when pricing their houses to ensure they are sold before the end of the deadline.
Bannister said: “We know from a recent Rightmove study that sellers are twice as likely to sell if they agree a sale based on the first price at which their property goes on the market, something that’s even more important now as we move towards the end of March and the end of the stamp duty holiday.
“If your initial asking price is too high, then you’re less likely to get an offer even after you’ve cut your price back to a more realistic level.”