British homeowners are slashing the average asking price on their property by as much as £6,500, as some estate agents reduce the value of deals by as much as a fifth in an effort to shift houses.

According to Rightmove, the property search website, the average asking price of a home in England and Wales in the four weeks to November 8 was £223,000 - a 2.9 per cent decline on the previous month and the biggest fall since records began in 2002.

Over the year, the asking price fell by 7.1 per cent and Rightmove said some estate agents are selling houses for about 20 per cent under peak prices.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: “Some sellers could avoid months of disillusionment and despair if they started marketing at an asking price a lot closer to where the evidence indicates they are likely to end up.

“While average asking prices have fallen by 7.1 per cent over the past year, in most parts of the country you should look to at least double that discount to achieve a sale.”

An average of just 20,000 people a week put their property up for sale during the period, the lowest level recorded by Rightmove since 2002, and well down on a level of around 35,000 last year.

Rightmove said the low tally of sellers suggested that homeowners were not under pressure to sell their home, with many unwilling to enter the market until the outlook for prices had improved.

The group believes the Bank of England’s drastic interest rate reductions, which have reduced the base rate to its lowest level since 1955, will stimulate the market in 2009.

The North was the only region of England and Wales not to see price falls during the month, with prices rising by 1.3 per cent.

The West Midlands experienced the biggest slide in asking prices with these dropping by 5.6 per cent during the four weeks, while they dipped by 5.4 per cent in Yorkshire and Humberside.

On an annual basis, Wales showed the biggest drop in prices of 11.2 per cent, followed by a slide of 9.3 per cent in the North West.

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