New sellers’ average asking prices fell by 2.7% in December to leave prices marginally up year-on-year (+1.5%), Rightmove has reported.

Rightmove forecasts more of the same in the defining metrics of property supply and buyer demand in 2012, resulting in another small rise in nominal average asking prices. However, according to Rightmove, the key to the success of buyers and sellers in 2012 will be their understanding of how the impact of the credit crunch has fragmented traditional local buyer and seller dynamics into a series of highly complex micro-markets.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said: “The market fragmentation caused by the credit crunch means that success in selling now requires a very careful and complex local market analysis. As always it involves location