A respected analyst says her take of the recent market snapshot from RICS is it will be very likely that further house price falls are on the way.

Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at a finance services company, says: “August is always quiet, but this year it was deathly. Higher mortgage rates chased buyers out of the market, and those who remained sat on their hands in the hope that house prices would keep dropping. They’re likely to get what they wish for.”

RICS’ latest market snapshot finds that in August house price falls increased drastically with the drop of sales and numbers of prospective buyers during the month.

Sales have been at their lowest reading since the start of the pandemic and each sale on is average taking 20 weeks from being listed to completion whereas in 2021 the norm was 16 weeks.

The current situation in the private rental sector is the ever present demand outweighing supply and Coles believes it could be the perfect opportunity for landlords to take advantage of lower prices down to the fall in sales.

Coles says: “Prices are falling, but not fast enough to convince buyers to take the plunge. Those who are prepared to make an offer are driving a hard bargain. Zoopla figures in June showed 42 per cent were negotiating a price cut of over five per cent - the biggest proportion since 2018.

”Sellers, meanwhile, are refusing to budge as far as they need to in order to secure a sale. It means fewer sales, and it’s taking much longer for property to shift.

“Sluggish sales have a knock-on effect, because it gets more difficult to put a chain together. Even when they succeed, it takes so long that buyers get cold feet about paying a price they offered months ago. They want to pull out or renegotiate, and as a result, it’s getting harder to keep chains intact.