Northern towns facing 8% property price reductions
Northern regions worst affected as sellers are forced to drop prices, accounting for top three average price reductions across the country.
Two in five of all properties currently up for sale in Britain have had their asking prices reduced at least once since coming onto the market, data from Zoopla.co.uk has shown.
Even properties over £1m, where the market has been more resilient, have seen asking price reductions. Some 27 per cent of these properties have had the price reduced at least once.
The property website claimed that the average price reduction by sellers is around £18,500, £2,200 more than one year ago.
The north/south divide also continues to widen in the property market, with towns and cities in the northern UK regions dominating the list of places with the highest average price reductions.
The data showed that sellers in Bolton are worst affected, having been forced to reduce the original asking price by 8.6 per cent on average. Glasgow and Newcastle-upon-Tyne complete the top three with average reductions of 8.2 per cent.
Prices in the south-east have remained more immune to reductions, with properties in Chelmsford having the lowest average discount of 5.5 per cent.
London has the lowest proportion of price-reduced homes in the UK of 32.4 per cent, serving to emphasise its detachment from the rest of the market. Meanwhile, in Stockport 47.8 per cent of all properties for sale have been reduced in price since coming onto the market.
Nicholas Leeming, business development director at Zoopla.co.uk, said: "Vendors continue to have to lower prices due to weak buyer demand.
"Sluggish economic growth has hit buyer confidence and tight-fisted lenders are currently making it impossible for swathes of would-be buyers to benefit from the price reductions.
"For those who can get mortgages, now is as good a time as there has been in over a year to bag a property bargain."