Call me naive, but...

Dangerboy

I'm renting at the moment and never seem to be able to save enough for a deposit on that first house- prices seem to be rising more quickly than I can save (and certaily more quickly than my wages!) It's really winding me up- looking through the local paper and contemplating (yet) another year of renting I wondered whether if MSE-ers could directly influence house prices across the country...

It appears to me that the media seems to be whipping everyone up into a frenzy regarding house prices- if the media report that house prices have risen by 10% people seem to reisign to paying 10% more for a property.
Surely a house is only worth what someone will pay for it?

Now for the 'call me naive' bit-

If a large enough proportion of the house buying public (MSE-ers for example) got together and offered a maximum of (say) 70% of the asking price for a given house, would it be possible to reduce house prices by 30%?

That would certainly help me get a foot on the ladder!

Thoughts/comments etc please

Tallymanjohn

Unfortunately there are an awful lot of non-MSE-ers out there, a shortage of decent well-priced property and a lot of loose cash flying around so it is still a sellers market - driven up by estate agents, of course who, as they're on percentage commission can only gain by higher prices. I can't see the spiral stopping yet until interest rates start hitting the mortgaged buy-to-rent market.

UK007BullDog

Yes it would be possible but the whole nation has to take part, not just the MSE-ers. Not sure about a 30% drop though, maybe making it stay stagnant would be a better goal?

However will the sellers play along? Will they accept the down valuing or will they stay put and not sell? I would not sell but stay put.

Personally I think the only way to stop this crazy price drive is to let people build houses they want and for the government to release more areas for affordable ecological housing and not just flats. To look at old sites that have turned to high crime areas and pull everything down and build good housing. There are plenty of areas around London where space could be utilised building nice green oasises.

UK007BullDog

Just got this in the e-mail mail and wanted to share:

New buyer figures have reached record levels, according to Your Move.

1,516,000 new buyers registered with UK estate agents in July, a record high for over two years. While the majority of these are existing home owners, these property buyers are refusing to put their own property on the market.

Only 633,000 properties are currently on the market in the UK, a figure that has remained broadly stable since the beginning of the year. Buyers are out numbering sellers by over 2.5 to 1.

David Newnes, managing director of Your Move Estate Agents, said: “While the number of active buyers has reached a record high, a reluctance to put their own properties onto the market has resulted in an acute shortage of supply. With too many buyers chasing too few sellers, the pressure for property prices to rise further will only intensify.

“Home buyers are mainly focusing on securing a new home before putting their own on the market. They are concentrating on what they believe to be the more difficult task in the present supply starved market. This however, exacerbates the continuing shortage of houses on the market. If buyers were to put their home on the market at the same time as looking for a property to buy, this vicious catch 22 situation would reduce significantly.”

Reflecting the relative shortage of properties for sale is the increase in viewing per property which, at an average of 3.2 in July, up 23 per cent on the same month last year.

While gross sales were higher than last year the shortage of supply has prevented growth in recent months. Meanwhile, fall throughs of previously agreed sales remained high at 26 per cent, a reflection of the inefficiencies of the current house buying process."

Newnes added: “Fall throughs are typically a result of wavering sellers withdrawing after initially agreeing to an offer and nervous buyers pulling out after finding out the cost implications of essential property repairs.

“The original Home Information Packs (HIPs) would have at least helped reduce the number of ‘dip your toe in the pond’ sellers and give buyers detailed upfront condition reports resulting in far less fall throughs than present.

“The government’s U-Turn on the Home Condition Report has left us with a half-baked HIP which is all but worthless. It does not help either buyers or sellers, who are growing increasingly frustrated with the current archaic and painful home purchasing system.”

As long as there are more buyers fighting to buy over the available small number of properties, the prices will continue to go up. Only very high interest rates and wages which do not increase might be able to stop the growth in prices. But even then parent are remortgaging to help their kids have a decent deposit. So the spiral might still keep on going up.

Jorgan_2

I'd be intrigued to see where the figure of 1.5 million buyers has come from. Is this just buyers with Your Move or with all estate agents across the UK. When I worked for You Move we used to get figures all the time from the area manager saying that we x numbers of buyers/sellers etc registered with us. Problem was if a buyer had registered in 4 offices they were counted 4 times, not once. Fine if they are buying multiple properties, but rarley the case.

continualdiamond

100% mortgage out the q?

Just a thought, as my boyfriend and i have just gone down this route, 2 yrs renting at £400 a mth for 1 bedroom place, we wished we bought 2 yrs ago now.

We've just purchased a 2 bedroom ground floor flat for £82,000 and will be paying a tad over £400, granted we're doing interest only to start off with. But it's the only way we could get a foot onto the ladder, then in a few yrs time with interest only we'll switch to repayment.

UK007BullDog

Jorgan wrote:

I'd be intrigued to see where the figure of 1.5 million buyers has come from. Is this just buyers with Your Move or with all estate agents across the UK. When I worked for You Move we used to get figures all the time from the area manager saying that we x numbers of buyers/sellers etc registered with us. Problem was if a buyer had registered in 4 offices they were counted 4 times, not once. Fine if they are buying multiple properties, but rarley the case.

Very good point Jorgan, and it does not seem to say.

mi-key

Its a very British thing that we'll all moan about the price, yet still pay it.

The French wouldnt - they'd be out burning cars and rioting ( like they do whenever they object to something, and they usually get their way ).

lovelldr

mi-key wrote:

Its a very British thing that we'll all moan about the price, yet still pay it.

The French wouldnt - they'd be out burning cars and rioting ( like they do whenever they object to something, and they usually get their way ).

I think that you'll find the french don't actually burn the cars and riot. That's usually the ethnic minorities over there (not wanting to sound racist, but it is). The french will usual protest, but not riot!!!