'Stagnation' hits property market

ess0two

zarazara wrote: »

Its all down to pricing. The price of anything is only what someone else is prepared to pay for it, be it a pencil or a rocketship.
If its cheap enough it will sell, but that price may be waaaayyyy below what the seller expects.
so, if the people selling houses at, say, £200,000 reduced them to £20,000 they'd sell alright.

Or wait for sellers to pay you to take their houses.

zarazara

:beer: hee-heee

mean_momma

spuds wrote: »

.. stagnation is exactly the right word. ...... most people will just stay put until they see the prices of others coming down first. .

Reading these forums, the impression is that all house prices will suddenly collapse and everyone will be able to bag themselves a bargain. The reality is that replacing one home with another can be a lengthy, cumbersome, stressful - not to mention extremely expensive - process. Yes, investors might cut their losses and sell up, but those 'silly sellers' holding out for a good price are not going to risk selling off their homes to the bargain hunters and ending up 'out on the streets'.

They need to be sure of a be sure of a good choice of properties at the right price, and will indeed be waiting to see an accepted new price structure and a healthy market (i.e. lots of buyers and sellers) before taking the risk.

harryhound

Unfortunately it is looking like 2009 might be so grim that there will be lots of sales by "The mortgagee in possession". Such chain free purchases can be done and dusted fairly quickly, it is the same as buying a house where someone has died.
The only little difficulty is the purchaser finding the money.

besonders1

I believe the only houses we will see selling are the repossessions, as for the others then most will just take the off the market as they won't be going anywhere. I think the penny will drop eventually and sellers will be re marketing their property at realistic values only when the prices of other homes come down in line. It must be annoying having a house on the market with no interest and if you desperately need to move house. By this time the repossessions that do sell will set the new "lower" market rate.

A lot of people say that few affordable homes on the market will push the prices back up but that is non-sense as who can buy them if there are no mortgages? There may be a few lucky cash buyers like STR's and property developers but the money they have is not of endless supply e.g. once they have bought their house or houses, there will be no more funds to buy any more especially with rents coming down.