Biggest August fall in British house prices since 2018 – business live

British house prices have experienced their largest August drop since 2018, according to property portal Rightmove. The average house price fell by 2% this month to £364,999.

House prices are down 1% year-on-year, which is the largest annual drop since December 2023, City AM reports. London's housing market is the worst affected, with house prices falling by 3.1% in the year to August, while prices across the south of England are down by 1.8% year-on-year. In contrast, the average price in the north has risen by 1.5% in the past year.

Rightmove has revised its forecast for national house price growth to between 0% and -2%. The property portal cites the uncertain geopolitical picture, changing mortgage rate landscape, and the new Chancellor's first Budget in October as factors making it difficult to predict the rest of the year.

Brief written by urgent.news from Guardian Business, City AM — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.