House prices falling start to fallRightmove has backed up last week's findings from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) and agreed that house prices have indeed now started to fall.

The average price dropped by some 2.6 per cent last month, the firm said, on the back of a cooling market and higher interest rates.

These problems were compounded by the introduction of Home information packs (Hips), Rightmove has said, which resulted in the number of properties with four or more bedrooms being put up for sale falling by 41 per cent.

Annual inflation remained healthy though at 9.6 per cent, though this week Nationwide has suggested that the annual figure would fall back to just three per cent next year.

"Whilst there was a surge of ‘4 bedders’ coming onto the market for just one week at the end of July, there has been a much greater dearth of them in the four weeks since," noted Rightmove commercial director Miles Shipside.

"If this happens with the remainder of the phased introduction of Hips, the concern will be that impulse sellers are being put off by the additional costs and hassle of a pack," Mr Shipside added.