UK Asking Prices Fall 2% in August as Rightmove Cuts Its 2026 Forecast

British sellers cut new asking prices by £7,360 in August, the sharpest August drop since 2018, and Rightmove now sees 2026 ending flat or negative.

The average price of a home newly listed for sale in Britain fell to £364,999 in August, down £7,360 or 2.0% in a single month. That is the steepest August fall Rightmove has recorded since 2018, against a ten-year August average of −1.3%, and it dragged annual asking-price growth to −1%, the weakest reading since December 2023. Rightmove responded by cutting its full-year 2026 forecast from +2% to a range of zero to −2%.

Asking prices lead, sale prices follow

An asking-price index and a transaction index are currently telling different stories, and both are correct. Rightmove records what sellers put on the market this month. HM Land Registry and the ONS record what buyers actually paid on deals agreed months earlier — the completed-sale data behind Glopra's UK reference figure of roughly $3,850 per square metre, derived from an average sold price of £271,295, was still running at +2.7% year on year in the May 2026 reading. A home listed in August typically completes in winter, so this month's asking-price cut is the earliest visible signal of where the transaction index goes next, not a revision of where it has been.

London is where the stock has piled up

The national average hides a widening split. London asking prices are down 3.1% over twelve months, the largest fall anywhere in Great Britain, and buyers there now face the widest choice of homes since 2010. Southern England as a whole is down 1.8%, while the North of England is still up 1.5% and the North West leads every region at +1.9%. Supply is the mechanism behind the divergence: for the time of year, the number of homes on the market nationally sits at a twelve-year high, and in London at its highest since 2010. Agents commenting on the release single out flats as the most exposed segment, because that is where the surplus is concentrated.

Mortgage pricing moved against buyers

July's rate moves did not help. The average two-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 5.09% from 4.92%, reversing part of the easing seen earlier in the year. Buyer enquiries did pick up — they are 5% higher than before the change of prime minister on 20 July — but still sit about 10% below the same point last year. Rightmove framed that uptick as a possible signal of a busier autumn rather than a turn in prices.

What the forecast cut does and does not say

A 2026 range of zero to −2% describes seller expectations, not the value of the existing stock, and the two can diverge for several quarters. For a non-resident owner the arithmetic runs through tax and currency as well: UK rental income for a landlord who does not qualify for the personal allowance carries an effective 18.51% burden in Glopra's standardised non-resident case, and sterling is down 1.3% against the dollar over the past twelve months. The stock overhang is the variable to watch — until listings clear, sellers still pricing to the market of a year ago are the ones adding to it.

Sources: Rightmove House Price Index, 17 Aug 2026 https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/house-price-index/; Property118, 17 Aug 2026 https://www.property118.com/uk-house-asking-prices-fall-2-in-august/; Introducer Today, 17 Aug 2026 https://www.introducertoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2026/08/august-price-drop-highest-since-2018/

Market data: United Kingdom