Scales tipping as demand outstrips supply again

dopester

1echidna wrote: »

I wonder whether if people think it is the bottom of the market it will be a time when sellers hold off if they can and conversely buyers, again if they can, pitch in. Psychological factors at play in a market recovery?

That and the slight problem that the banks now know there is no profit to be had in lending to all comers who want property at these price levels.. and the credit-markets (people who still have money to invest) won't play ball in lending to support over-valued asset prices.. and QE won't fix the problem either.

Values have to fall.. and your dream of this being near the bottom of the crash... well deflation is going repeatedly two-foot stomp down on all your expectations.

Thrugelmir

bigfatbelly wrote: »

Demand is outstripping supply in certain areas. Lots of people are downsizing and looking for smaller/cheaper places to live. Remember, downsizing is different to downgrading - and a lot of people have cottoned onto that.

You've now got people who are selling off their homes at a reduced rate and getting £1M for them, and then they're grabbing up very nice places for £700k.

Likewise some people are swallowing a loss and selling up for £500k and buying up good properties for just £350k.

All areas differ of course, but any GOOD properties, in good areas, are being snapped up by people downsizing. And it's actually the fairly wealthy people who are downsizing. As always they're snapping up the bargains because they're cash buyers. I actually have heard of 2 cases of gazumping in the last 5 weeks - one property was on at £350k (went for £365) but was outstanding in terms of uniqueness, and the other one was asking £629.950 and got £649k.

There's a lot of stuff going on out there that we don't hear about. Probably because the rich (as always) want to snap up the lovely properties before they even get on to the market. One estate agent I know of (the one who sold the first property) has a list of wealthy cash buyers on his books and as soon as a property comes up which he knows they'd like he's on the phone to them. These properties don't even make the EAs list - they're often haggled over BEFORE being listed! Surprised? I bet! But it's happening out there more than you'd ever know!

You are quite correct in what you say. Though this has to be put into perspective in terms of volume and location.

These are the figures for 2008 for the sales of houses over 1 million pounds.

5,302 houses sold (Total house sales were 750,926 in 2008).

Accounted for 0.007% of all property sales.

83% of million pound sales were in London and South East. ( 4,384).