Kensington & Chelsea asking prices fall £95,000 in a month

The average asking price for newly listed homes in Kensington & Chelsea fell by just over £95,000 in a single month, as sellers in London’s most expensive borough adjusted to a cooling market. Rightmove recorded the drop between July and August, with the average price falling from £1,648,148 to £1,552,970.

The decline reflects a broader trend across London, where asking prices dropped by 4.4% over the same period. This equates to nearly £30,000 off the average new listing, the largest regional fall in the country. Rightmove attributed the shift to a surge in available properties, with the number of homes for sale in London reaching its highest level in 16 years.

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Landlords drive hard bargains

Landlords are capitalising on the market slowdown, with data from estate agent Hamptons showing they accounted for 14.1% of all home purchases in Great Britain in July. This is up from a year-to-date average of 12.4%. The firm reported that landlords are pushing for steep discounts, with the average purchase price in July at just 88.7% of the initial asking price.

More than half of offers from investor buyers in July were at least 10% below the seller’s asking price, the highest proportion since April 2020. Sellers are increasingly accepting these lowball offers, particularly for leasehold properties. Hamptons found that 41% of offers at least 10% below asking price for leasehold flats were accepted in July, up from 18% in the same month last year.

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Market conditions push sellers to adjust

Colleen Babcock, a property expert at Rightmove, said the August price drop indicated that sellers were recognising market realities. "This month’s larger-than-usual August price drop is a sign that many sellers are pricing much more competitively from day one," she said, as reported by The Guardian.

The cooling market has been attributed to several factors, including higher mortgage rates, economic pressures, and stretched affordability. Lloyds reported that UK house prices were broadly stagnant in July, while Nationwide recorded a marginal increase of 0.1%. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors described the UK housing market as "subdued" in its July survey.

Leasehold flats are proving particularly difficult to sell, even after price reductions. Zoopla found that across most of England, the majority of leasehold flats listed for sale in 2025 had not sold within six months. Sellers have blamed the discredited leasehold system for deterring buyers.

What happens next

Rightmove and Hamptons have not indicated when the market might stabilise. Sellers in Kensington & Chelsea and across London are likely to continue adjusting prices in response to buyer demand. The next set of data from Rightmove, expected in mid-September, will show whether the trend persists or begins to reverse.

This month’s larger-than-usual August price drop is a sign that many sellers are recognising the reality of the market and pricing much more competitively from day one.

Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove