London house prices continuing to fall, says Rics

setmefree2

House prices in London are moving in the opposite direction to the rest of the UK - they are falling, according to surveyors.
More surveyors reported that property prices had fallen in the three months to the end of February than those who reported price rises.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31839990

THE FALL in London house prices is moderating, an influential study of property surveyors showed today.
The proportion of surveyors reporting falling prices in the capital outweighed those reporting a rise by a margin of 28 per cent in February, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said.
By contrast, the net balance seeing prices fall was 46 per cent in January, indicating a substantial stabilisation in the market.

http://www.cityam.com/211408/uk-house-prices-accelerate-drop-london-moderates

I did think that this was true in Ealing (my patch of London) but had no evidence.

This has got to be good news. Yes? No?

N1AK

setmefree2 wrote: »

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31839990

http://www.cityam.com/211408/uk-house-prices-accelerate-drop-london-moderates

I did think that this was true in Ealing (my patch of London) but had no evidence.

This has got to be good news. Yes? No?

I'm not sure I'd see sizeable property price falls, even in London, as a good thing. Volatile property prices help no one, make planning for the future, and day to day living harder for many.

A lot of the people who'd be hardest hit would be people who got mortgaged to the hilt to get a property, end up losing a huge chunk of networth and wind up unable to move.

I'd love to see London property prices fall, but I'd rather see it happen in a control manner, say 25% in real terms over an extended period (say 10 years).

jacknight

It is always going to be swings and roundabouts, but the fact is over many years its going to increase.

I suppose for short term focused investments this is important stuff.

Crashy_Time

jacknight wrote: »

It is always going to be swings and roundabouts, but the fact is over many years its going to increase.

I suppose for short term focused investments this is important stuff.

Like the FTSE you mean?

Fraise

They churn this out every few months, but London prices still keep rising. I think people are immune to this scaremongering. It's lost its impact. London is expensive and always will be. What's the point in saying otherwise when yore always wrong?

mobfant

The standard rule is if you're buying for your own home for many years it doesn't matter when you buy.

But this year there is no longer the feeling of the pressure to buy that there was last year. It's not clear what way the market is going. A big crash would be the best outcome but it's not realistic - save for a significant external shock from somewhere. Hopefully we'll just see a freeze or fall in real terms for a bit.

Generali

mobfant wrote: »

The standard rule is if you're buying for your own home for many years it doesn't matter when you buy.

But this year there is no longer the feeling of the pressure to buy that there was last year. It's not clear what way the market is going. A big crash would be the best outcome but it's not realistic - save for a significant external shock from somewhere. Hopefully we'll just see a freeze or fall in real terms for a bit.

Why do you think a big crash would be a good thing?

chucknorris

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Like the FTSE you mean?

You are showing just how naïve you are here, you probably think that you are on solid ground saying that, because the ftse 100 is still below its 1999 level. However what you are not taking into account is the dividend income, but more importantly, investing over time means that you would have seen substantial profits from investing when the market was down from 2008 onwards, some investors will target those times as 'time to get stuck in'. Additionally the 250 and allshare indices passed their previous highs some time ago.

IronWolf

N1AK wrote: »

I'm not sure I'd see sizeable property price falls, even in London, as a good thing. Volatile property prices help no one, make planning for the future, and day to day living harder for many.

A lot of the people who'd be hardest hit would be people who got mortgaged to the hilt to get a property, end up losing a huge chunk of networth and wind up unable to move.

I'd love to see London property prices fall, but I'd rather see it happen in a control manner, say 25% in real terms over an extended period (say 10 years).

Considering London prices have gained massively in only a couple of years, any large correction is going to harm only the few people that have bought recently. I think a 25% correction would still lock a lot of people out of ever buying a place in London, 50% would be more like it. Not that that's ever going to happen though unless the London economy is in a state..

Loughton_Monkey

Generali wrote: »

Why do you think a big crash would be a good thing?

Rather a contradiction in terms....

Such statements are often made by people who... er... don't 'think'.

A lot of people seem to have the same over-simplified outlook on life to believe that house prices could 'crash' in isolation. So you wake up one morning to find houses are 30% cheaper. But somehow they still expect their job to be there, to be safe, their investments and pension values to hold up, that prices will be stable, banks will happily lend new money at low interest rates, and the chancellor to happily reduce tax and give us another 1p off our pint!

Ironically, though, these 'thinkers' probably have no job, no pension, no money, can't afford a pint, and so nothing to lose. They still couldn't afford a house, though.

Killerseven

its obvious london is way overvalued, the question of crashing is a matter of when not if.