Rightmove reports ‘unusual’ softening of asking prices
Portal says the post-Stamp Duty changes and consequent glut of properties have forced many vendors to re-appraise their asking prices this month.
Asking prices have softened this month by 0.3% to £378,240, which is unusual for June, says Rightmove.
Prices have been falling fastest in London, the South East and South West where the higher Stamp Duty rates bite the hardest.
In recent years June usually sees a half-a-percent or so increase in prices as buyers seek to secure their offers before going on holiday.
The portal, along with most property industry commentators has pinned this mini-slump on both the post April 1st stamp duty hikes, and the consequent glut of properties on the market after many buyers brought forward their purchases.
Rightmove also say many areas of the UK are now therefore seeing ‘buyers’ market’ as vendors facing a ‘decade-high competition’ to secure buyers drop their asking prices.
“It appears that we’re now seeing the decade-high level of homes for sale, and the recent stamp duty increases in England, have a delayed impact on new sellers’ pricing,” says Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove.
“Prices have fallen this month after the new records set in April and May. Agents have been telling us that sellers need to set a competitive price to have a better chance of finding a buyer in the current market, and it looks like many are listening and responding to that message.
“Such realistic pricing will remain key in the coming months.”
Industry reaction
Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank
“The Stamp Duty cliff edge in April cooled demand and sellers have realised just how much of a buyers’ market it is,” he says.
“The number of new UK listings in May was 25% higher than the five-year average while the number of new buyers was a fifth lower, our data shows.
“Supply has risen for reasons that include delayed activity due to last year’s election and Budget, a degree of financial distress as mortgage rates normalise, and a growing number of landlords trying to sell due to legislative changes.
“Whatever the cause, asking prices need to reflect this imbalance, particularly for anyone wanting to move before speculation ahead of the autumn Budget potentially drags on activity after the summer.”
Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman
“The amount of unsold stock is rising and transaction numbers are falling,” he says. “However, the overwhelming majority of agreed sales are holding, although some prices are softening.
“We are telling sellers who are also buyers, but receiving little or no interest in their properties, to concentrate on the difference between the two and reduce closer to their bottom line while still leaving room for negotiation.
“New sellers, particularly of flats, need to recognise quickly the buyers’ market conditions and price to stand out from the crowd.”
While Rightmove’s June data shows an unusual softening of asking prices, its role as a neutral property price indicator is compromised by a business model that heavily prioritises shareholder returns over agents’ or consumers’ interests.
According to Rightmove’s own House Price Index, average asking prices dipped by 0.3% to £378,240 in June—a rare divergence from the typical 0.4% seasonal rise—yet this headline obscures a fundamental conflict of interest in how the portal operates.
Beneath the surface, Rightmove adheres to a capital-light policy that directs virtually all surplus cash back to investors: in FY 2024, it returned £181.7 million to shareholders via buy-backs and dividends out of underlying operating profit of £273.9 million, in line with its long-standing commitment to distribute 100% of free cash flow rather than reinvest in more sophisticated analytics or lower agent fees.
This shareholder-first orientation produces extraordinary profitability—statutory operating profit margin stood at 66%, with an underlying margin of 70.3% in the same period—far exceeding the 50–60% gross margins typical of digital services and effectively capturing most subscription fees paid by estate agents as near-pure profit.
Agents are effectively locked in: with 90% retention of agency branches and over 95% awareness among UK home-movers, few brokers can risk unsubscribing, especially given the psychological pressure Rightmove applies—“list elsewhere and you won’t be on Rightmove”—to deter defections and maintain its dominant, captive revenue stream.
Given these misaligned incentives—where the portal’s core duty is to its shareholders, not the accuracy of market data—property professionals and consumers should cross-reference Rightmove’s figures with alternative portals, independent valuation tools and on-the-ground agent feedback rather than treating it as the definitive, “trusted” source for pricing.