Are house prices in Herts cooling off?

vivatifosi

silvercar wrote: »

I'm in south Herts. prices round here have been going up. I don't know if this a local issue, being so near London. certainly flats I was watching at £230k are now asking £270k.

I was looking at properties at a similar price. They stuck under £250k for a while due to the stamp duty threshold, but then went above and the price was breached so rose quite a bit. I wonder how much a part stamp duty pays in price increases.

Jason74

well I can't comment on Herts, but certainly in my corner of South London the picture is very mixed. Sellers of the best houses in the best roads seem to be able to pretty much name their price, with a couple of very nice properties selling relatively quickly at prices that I thought were absolutely bonkers.

But for everything else, the picture isn't as clear cut. Not that long ago, You could pretty much stick anything up for sale for 5 - 10% above the previous ceiling price for the property questioned, and it would sell in a heartbeat. While that is still seemingly true for the best properties, for everything else, it seems as though the market is basically saying no to the latest attempts at increases.

I've seen plenty of cases in the last few weeks where vendors have tried speculative pricing for properties, and the market has rejected them,. They've gone to the "open day" type set ups, and wheras three Months ago pretty much everything that went this route sold, lots of properties are now sticking. In some cases, vendors have then reduced prices back to previous recent sale levels, and have found buyers fairly quickly.

I wouldn't go as far as to say a meaningful slowdown, but it's perhaps fair to say that for all but the most desirable properties, some kind of balance is being reached and we might see a levelling off of prices soon as a result.

MGCP

What Jason says matches what I've been seeing. I bought last year in East London when things were utterly frenetic and everything that went to open day sold within a couple of days. Not fun but I couldn't hang around renting any longer so just had to go for it.

That crazy market encouraged sellers to start putting up their very average looking homes up at very inflated prices and it does now seem as if those homes are taking longer to shift (which is no bad thing).

There is still a real supply issue though, and in the area where I bought you don't see that many properties coming on the market that look really desirable, everything seems to need a lot of work doing (even if it is just a complete redecoration of the current owner's very "individual" taste). The nicest looking properties still seem to be selling pretty quickly, presumably at around asking price.

Conrad

Deffo no cooling off, I'm looking right now and few properties are coming to market and prices are leaping by the month.


I don't trust these LR figs as they are completely at odds with my day to day experience, where I have many clients and myself buying over the last 12 months.


Ex council 2 bed flats in a not very nice town were £140k 12 months ago, today £190k and rising by the week.


Ex council 3 bed flat roof lego houses were c£170k 12 months ago, now £235k.


Had several clients buy 12 months ago and make a massive profit selling now.


Most properties are selling above asking price.


Current client put her 2 bed flat on at £210k, bids coming in above £225k and £210 we thought was pushing it.

Annie1960

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

I have no idea either way but I think he's trying to put pressure on you to get your business.

"Sell quick before it's too late!" is what he wants you to hear and act upon. He wants you to do it right now. He doesn't want you to go away and think about it and then forget all about it. He wants to motivate you to give him your business now before you change your mind. Instilling a sense of urgency is probably the most common sales tactic of them all.

If business was cooling off, he wouldn't be touting for extra stock, would he?

Good point, but I had already signed a contract with one of his competitors!

wymondham

I'm doing my bit by not buying in Herts if that helps?

Annie1960

Thanks for all your comments.

I now have an answer, in line with what most of you are saying, as my open day was on Saturday and I've had an offer well above asking.

So, looks like there is no cooling market here after all.

reehsetin

Not cooling off where I am (Harpenden), houses are being snapped up quickly and the prices are definitely at the higher end of the scale

michaels

Sounds like your house must be one of the good day ones then

I have been told that some agents like Collinson hall are being very 'aggresive' on asking prices to get the instruction accepting there may well be reductions down the line.

Annie1960

michaels wrote: »

Sounds like your house must be one of the good day ones then

I have been told that some agents like Collinson hall are being very 'aggresive' on asking prices to get the instruction accepting there may well be reductions down the line.

They are not the only ones! There are two or three EAs known for this, one a very new one to the area who valued my house much too high. Needless to say I did not sign with them.