House price inflation is easing and more buyers are returning to the market says Hometrack.

Hometrack’s March survey reported a fall in prices of 0.1% – the smallest decrease recorded for more than six months.

This means that the average cost of a home in the UK – according to Hometracks survey – is now £162,300.

More buyers returning to the market has meant that discounts are being sought after. For March the average sales price as a percentage of asking price was 93.4%.

Also, the amount of time it takes to sell a property dropped from 7.6 weeks in February to 7.4 weeks in March.

Areas showing a rise in asking prices included Central London & City (+0.8%), Derbyshire (+0.8%), North West London (+0.8%), North Wales (+0.4%) and East Riding of Yorkshire (+0.3%).

Whilst on the other scale, areas reporting the largest price falls were Northumberland (-1.0%), South Yorkshire (-0.9%), Cambridgeshire (-0.9%), North Lincolnshire (-0.8%) and Leicestershire (-0.8%).
-