Average house prices in the UK will fall by 1% next year as competition increases among sellers, Britain’s biggest property website has forecast.

Sellers were likely to have to price more competitively to secure a buyer in 2024, while mortgage rates would settle down though “remain elevated”, said Rightmove.

A year ago, Rightmove predicted that average asking prices would fall by 2% in 2023. On Monday, the company said the average was 1.3% lower than in 2022 as the property market continued to contend with significantly higher mortgage costs and a cost of living crisis that refused to go away.

The website records asking prices rather than the actual one properties are sold for. It said it was predicting that these would typically be 1% lower nationally by the end of 2024. The market was continuing its transition to “more normal levels” of activity after the busy post-pandemic period, it added.