Sometimes we forget how much the housing market is driven, like so many investments, by the search for yield. Britons sell property to maximise their financial gains almost as much as they sell when a new job beckons in another town or they need to downsize following retirement or divorce.

An investment outlook means buy-to-let homes, second homes, holiday lets and even the family home can all be sold at the drop of a hat when the price is right.

So it must have been disappointing for investors that property website Rightmove has reported a 2.9% drop in asking prices across the country between July and August. It was the biggest drop since it has kept records and slowed annual price growth to a comparatively modest 5.3%.

Yet if property investors furrowed their brows, it can only be that they misread their own behaviour and how it drives prices.

If we go back to the spring, surveyors body RICS was very clear that potential sellers were holding back in the hope of future gains in prices. At the time the annual rise in London was touching 20%.

By contrast, buyers were flooding into estate agents buoyed by forecasts that interest rates would stay low for years.

Now we have a situation in reverse. The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, is judging the situation month by month. There could be a rise this year, next or the year after. This causes uncertainty and the withdrawal of some buyers. Hence the panic among sellers, who thought July was finally the month to sell.

Rightmove said there were 20% more sellers in London, bringing supply and demand more into alignment and therefore a cut in prices relative to the previous month.

It is safe to say all these extra sellers were in a position to maximise their gains. Amateur buy-to-let investors looking for an exit are a classic case. They will have waited until all the signals told them to sell, at which point every other amateur, reading the same predictions, will have joined them.

The fundamentals underlying the market have not changed. Most couples, families, divorced parents and retirees seeking to move are restricted by tighter mortgage lending rules and the threat of higher mortgage rates, unless they have inheritances, bonuses or cash from another source, a situation that changes only slightly year on year. But since they have to compete for homes against property investors and are often forced to buy from property investors, we have huge price volatility.