scottish housing market

54druids

Hi all, I live in a fantastic house in a fantastic village just north of Perth. I must admit I am terrified about this but I have to move house. We need to move closer to Glasgow for work. We have had a valuation from an ES and he reckons that prices in Perth have dropped 15% although he has shaved £65k off last years valuation which doesnt equate to the percentage. I have another valuer coming out tomorrow. I don't want to undersell my property and what I can get for his valuation in Glasgow is dire. So does anyone on here know any info about the scottish housing market and how it is fairing in this current climate. Also this is a new estate in a beautiful setting with huge gardens and mature trees, there is not alot comparable to it on the market in our area - the majority of people who live here have moved from England or Ireland and like ourselves have happened upon it by accident. Given that information could anyone also offer advice on how to market the property to open it up to a national market as much as possible. Failing that can someone give me next weeks winning lottery numbers so that i can stay.

mymatebob

Can you have a look to see if anything similar locally has been sold recently

nethouseprices.com is good for that.

Where are you thinking of aiming to relocate to?

54druids

thanks i will check that. We are trying to locate to the outskirts of glasgow

mymatebob

54druids wrote: »

thanks i will check that. We are trying to locate to the outskirts of glasgow

Well that gives you huge amounts of scope and area to cover.

Good luck

jenniferfluff29

I am currently renting in Bankfoot and hoping to move to Perth. The houses are stagnant in Bankfoot. I looked at a house in Perth at offers over £179999. They will accept £175000. Hopefully for myself this is an indication of things to come in the Perth area, unfortunate for yourself.

I was in the same situation as yourself as I had to move for work and had to take a bit cut in the final selling price of my house so that I could move on.

Good luck

54druids

wow that is a big freaky since i live in Murthly. That is my fear as well - if the ES is undervaluing my property then people are going to offer less again in this climate. My neighbour has hers on the market at more than that valuation and hers is a smaller house - so who do you trust to value your house. I have another ES on their way to my house now so we will see what they come up with. It looks like o/o is no better than fixed price then? as people will still bid under. As a buyer then what do you think of Next home and CKD Galbraith as ES?

jenniferfluff29

Things are slowing in the villages around Perth. Crieff has been slow for a while. If there are similar houses around your area then look at how long they have been on the market. If they have been on a few months, when house prices in the area have been going down, factor in how much they will be worth now and pitch your house below this figure. I did this with the house I sold. Reduced my price by £10K and was still knocked down another £3k on a fixed price.

I would be wary of putting my house on at a significantly higher price that what it is worth. I know how much I have budgeted for and I tend not to look at houses too much over this figure because in my experience seller in Perth are unwilling to drop. You may be willing to drop your price if you put your house on the market at a higher price but potential buyers may be put off even looking at your house if they have been putting in cheeky offers for other houses and are being knocked back. You need to get to know your market.

People in Perth are not being realistic in the prices they are asking. The majority of the houses on the market have been on for a while and they have not dropped their prices (I have been watching the market since last February). I think that the majority of sellers in Perth are keeping their houses on at either the fixed or O/O price that they originally put it on at but will be willing to accept lower offer s (but not alot lower). It is taking time for sellers to adjust and everyone that I talk to says that Perth is immune to the current housing crash. Which to a certain degree they are as they just won't sell at a lower price unless they are forced to thro redundancy, job move, etc. It is mainly the popular houses in Perth that are still selling, ie Oakbank, Craigie, etc. The houses behind Scottish Hydro off the Dunkeld Road are doing badly. One house that I looked at last year has dropped £30K and still hasn't sold - there wasn't anything wrong with it.

I wouldn't sell my house with Next Homes. The woman at work had problems with them a few years ago in that potential buyers were not getting the opportunity to look at the house and they kept coming up with excuses not to let people view when the woman was available for viewings. My experience last year when viewing houses were that they never got back to me to arrange a viewing when I e-mailed them. However, now they are phoning me up as soon as a house is going to go on the market (I am the type of buyer they are after with no house to sell) and also they can't have much to do anyway. Alison at Next Homes has been great in keeping me informed. They have always called me back and asked my opinion of the house, that is assuming you can get a viewing arranged.

I can't comment on Galbraith as I haven't viewed any of their properties yet. Hope this helps

caroline2960

Have you had an estate agent value the property or a surveyor?

Only ask because the commencement of The Home Report in December has made EA valuers figures pretty worthless (I was an EA valuer until 12 months ago, lucky to get out when I did!) because it includes a survey by a chartered surveyor with a mortgage valuation, so any prospective purchasers (or nosy neighbor) can have access to before they even view your property, so they know how much it has surveyed at and how much their lender will be prepared to loan on the property.

I live in Glasgow and am still in the property business, finding that people are seeing the surveyors valuation on the Home Report and going in about 10% below it as an opening offer whether its O/O or FP, although generally FP makes purchasers think the vendor is getting desperate/wants a quick sale so the offers tend to start even lower, even as much as 25%.

Whatever EA you choose should know their market well enough to be able to advise you whether to go FP or O/O and what percentage above the surveyors valuation you should start marketing at but presuming Perth has as many chancers as Glasgow I'd think 20% above the valuation gives you room to negotiate.

CKD Galbraith are reasonably well know and iv never heard any bad reports, they have an office in Glasgow and Ed as well im sure. To try to appeal to the national market a multi office EA such as Savills, Knight Frank, Countrywide/Slaterhogg might be more successful but your EA will be able to give your their marketing suggestions, the main tool is the internet so as long as your EA has a decent web site and uses the big generic sites, Rightmove, S1homes, Globrix etc and answers the phone/email enquiries quickly I dont think using a local/scotland only EA will be a hinderance.

Good luck, Glasgow rocks so am sure you will love it when you finally get here!

epz_2

my folks street is a bit weird and houses are rarely put up for sale but in the last 2 years 3 have been put up for sale, the previous last sale was 15 years previously.

Anyway top of the market a house got £230k and now there is one looking for £200k and it has a bigger garden and extension, that said our local market is weird but its a significant drop.

IveSeenTheLight

mymatebob wrote: »

Can you have a look to see if anything similar locally has been sold recently

nethouseprices.com is good for that.

Where are you thinking of aiming to relocate to?

If you go to http://www.ros.gov.uk/productsandservices/lpd_stats.html you can look up monthly average price figures for areas throughout Scotland.
Latest figures release are for November although Decembers should be iminent

arnie&caseysma!

My sister just had her house in SW Scotland valued by an independent surveyor. She has lived in it for less than 2 years and it is now valued at £1000 more than she paid for it. Saying that, she got it for a good price so not sure how much effect the change in the market has had there.

Same here with too many people/estate agents not realising house prices just aren't the same as what they were this time last year, or shortly before it, and most of them are still going on market at ridiculous prices and staying on the market for many many more months than they previously would (possibly due to the mortgage situation, not just the prices).