During the past three months, the prime regional markets saw small price falls of -0.9% as more stock came to the market and sentiment remained weak. This leaves values nearly -3% below where they were this time last year.
A lack of London buyers has been an ongoing issue for most regions. Additionally, there has been a notable decrease in the number of buyers from the financial services, reflecting the relatively weak short-term prospects in the financial and business services sector.
In the South East, there was a small increase of 1.5% in property values during the first quarter of this year as the number of London buyers increased briefly to 45% of all buyers. However, as market sentiment weakened with more bad news coming out of the eurozone, London buyers accounted for just 38% from March to June and across the region average values fell by -0.5%.
Further afield, prime property prices are now averaging 4% to 6% lower than in June 2011. However, some property types have outperformed others; townhouses across all regions have held up well, proving attractive to purchasers wanting proximity to the country coupled with the convenience of town living. These markets tend to benefit from an element of stock scarcity, particularly for traditional family houses, which has helped to temper major price fluctuations in these locations.
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