The market · August 2026 · 5 min read
Supply, not price, is the story this summer
July gave London its widest choice of homes in years and its steepest summer asking-price fall. For the represented buyer, that combination is the whole opportunity.
Headlines in July fixed on the price falls. The more useful number was the one behind them: the sheer quantity of property for sale. Prices soften because choice widens, and choice is what a buyer can actually use.
July in figures
Rightmove recorded a 1.0% fall in average asking prices in the four weeks to 11 July — around five times the usual seasonal dip — and put the number of homes for sale near a twelve-year high. London fell hardest of any region, down 1.6% to an average asking price of £676,248. Zoopla’s July index had national growth slowing to 0.9% and London down 1% on the year. Notably, Rightmove also found that roughly three-quarters of homes that sold did so without a price reduction: correctly priced property still moves; over-priced property sits.
In prime London, Knight Frank reported sales across the capital up 14% in the three months to July even as prime central London prices fell 3.3% over the year — the thirty-ninth consecutive month of annual decline, leaving values around 23% below their 2015 peak. Activity is returning at the level prices have reached, which is what a floor tends to look like from the inside.
Credit: held, and slightly dearer
The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75% again on 29 July, this time with three members voting for a rise, and its own forecast has inflation drifting up towards the end of the year. Fixed mortgage rates edged higher through the second half of July after falling in June. The direction of travel is not dramatic, but it argues against assuming that borrowing will be materially cheaper by autumn.
Reading a supply-rich market
When stock is abundant the discipline shifts from finding a home to choosing one. Three points of method. Compare like with like: a 1.6% fall in London asking prices hides a wide spread between the outstanding and the ordinary, and averages are not addresses. Use time as leverage: when a seller has competition from twenty similar listings, a proceedable buyer with finance in place can negotiate on price, on fixtures and on timing without seeming unreasonable. And insist on the fundamentals — aspect, light, plan, service charge, the state of the building and its management — because in a soft market the compromised flat is the one that stays soft.
New homes and the regeneration districts
Developers feel a summer like this before anyone. Unsold completed stock, a sales target and a half-year end make July and August the months in which incentives quietly widen: stamp-duty contributions, deposit help, specification upgrades and, on the right unit, price. Meanwhile the long-term case for the eastern regeneration districts continued to build — a £2.5 billion, 5,000-home waterfront scheme for the Royal Docks moved closer to approval in July, and the Royal Borough of Greenwich reported over 1,900 new homes delivered at Kidbrooke to date. Infrastructure and delivery on that scale is what underwrites value once the cycle turns.
On the statute book
Two consultations on leasehold reform — on the valuation rates used for lease extensions and enfranchisement, and on leaseholders’ liability for freeholders’ legal costs — were launched in mid-July and close on 23 September. The wider Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill is expected in Parliament in the autumn. None of it changes a lease this summer; all of it is worth knowing before you sign one.
Common questions
- Why are London asking prices falling in summer 2026?
- Mostly supply. Rightmove put the number of homes for sale near a twelve-year high in July 2026, and with more choice buyers became more price-sensitive. Seasonal factors — heat, holidays and a distracting summer — added to it.
- Is it a good time to negotiate on a new-build in London?
- Summer is typically the strongest moment. Developers carrying unsold stock into a half-year end are more flexible on incentives and, on the right unit, on price. Being represented helps, because the best terms are rarely advertised.
- Has prime central London hit the bottom?
- Nobody can call it in real time, but Knight Frank’s July 2026 data — rising sales volumes alongside prices roughly 23% below the 2015 peak — is the pattern that has historically preceded stabilisation. Buying at that level with good advice is a reasonable position.
Written by Cece Chau, The Address House.