Property website Rightmove found sellers slashed prices by 1.7 per cent during the month to August 7, sending the average asking value down by £4,091 to £232,241.
Soaring numbers of sellers outnumbered buyers, with the imbalance in supply and demand compounded as many house-hunters took summer holidays.
Rightmove found available stock per agent rose to its highest August level for three years, up 41.3 per cent on a year earlier to 29,220 a week.
It warned market conditions ‘‘bear some similarities’’ to the torrid second half of 2008 when the credit crunch left prices plunging by 7.1 per cent as agents struggling to shift stock.