Property -Views please

lush_walrus

All SE, Essex and Berkshire. For us it was very slow in April and May, which is normally one of the peaks as people look around at Easter with a plan to move during the childrens summer holidays. Both months were much much lower than last year. But June & July higher than last as these months are generally slow due to people being on holiday etc.

The other peak is generally Oct, Nov where people rush to buy to get in before xmas, so that will be the real test.

I own the agencies (and freelance elsewhere) rather than value, but I have manager meetings every 2 weeks, and all of them have reported prices still rising, with the sticking point for properties still at £250-280,000. The sold drawer at each has risen June/July so where few sales are completing at the moment (due to April/May), lots are in the pipeline (which is where we set our indicators).

Its definately a strange year, breaking patterns, but no sign of decline for us.

GreenB_2

It seems at present (maybe Lush Walrus can confirm) that houses are geneally taking longer to complete (I.e from viewing/offer to moving in). I am partly basing this on the number of postings on here about things taking so long.

So perhaps April/May was not so slow as it seems, but just the fact that its taking 8
to 12 weeks to finally getting to completion that is distorting the figures a little?

lush_walrus

GreenB wrote:

It seems at present (maybe Lush Walrus can confirm) that houses are geneally taking longer to complete (I.e from viewing/offer to moving in). I am partly basing this on the number of postings on here about things taking so long.

So perhaps April/May was not so slow as it seems, but just the fact that its taking 8
to 12 weeks to finally getting to completion that is distorting the figures a little?

Yes definately sales are taking a long time to go through, but the speed of this is very determined by the solicitor you choose and how efficient they are and the length of the chain you are in. There is a definate sticking point around the £250-280,000 mark where houses just arent shifting at all, due to the mad tax system still in place. Flats are still the fastest seller (as in the SE these are the only affordable things for most 1st time buyers).

We actually base our figures on sales in progress rather than completing in a certain month. We have found that we had less offers during April and May than on the previous year, but are up on last year during June and July (which is normally the quite months!). Who knows, I personally do not beleive in following countrywide trends on growth and decline. Local markets often over ride the national predictions. In the last major ressession, Reading in Berkshire had price rises, why because locally they were having a boom due to computer companies moving to the area, therefore high employment and lots of people able to buy regardless of high interest rates.
My advice if you are looking to buy is ignore the national trends and prediction figures and look at the market locally for trends.

sad_gills_fan

I don't know much about house prices but I do know that I see loads of houses up for sale in my area (including my own house). Surely these people are all looking for somewhere else, or most of them, so why are houses not selling?

I'm selling my house so I'm looking for another house to buy ... how does that not work?!!

BTW, if anyone wants to buy my house, please feel free .. it's a lovely 3 bed Victorian terrace with double rooms, cellar, loft blah blah blah blah !!

I'm going to give it another 6 weeks before puling it off the market and trying again next year maybe. Am I right do you think?

GreenB_2

How long as it been on the market for and what part of the country are you in?

I suspect you may find some increased activity afdter we know the BoE's decision on Interest Rates assuming it goes down.

So far the "CRASH" that has been in threads on here for over a year hasn't happened yet and prices currently are higher now (average over UK) than they were this time last year, although uonly by a couple of %, but people are still nervous and the media hype has made people think more deeply.

Personally with a long term view in mind (and as a home is somewhere to live) with interest rates low its not as bad as it seems. If you can afford say £800 a month repayments you can afford to pay more now for a house than a year ago when the mortgage deals offfered were higher.

FaTB

sad_gills_fan

How does that not work ?

In my view it stops working when greed takes over to the extent that House prices double and treble in five years !! The vital ingredient for everybody in the chain to move on is First time buyers, there are none !

And don't think i'll be buying until things return to something near normality

crankup

I dont think there is ever a good time to buy. Our first was in 1998. I couldnt believe I was agreeing to buy it and had doubts, even though we really liked it and could afford it. The neighbour had paid 25% less for his 2 yrs earlier. 5 yrs later and we sold for more than double. But the one we bought had also risen in a similar way. Again I doubted my sanity at the next house. 2yrs later again I watch the houses go up for sale and get "Sold" in under 2 weeks. For 20% up. I check em in nethouseprices.com too (sad or wot?). I feel ok about it now.
My point? If you see a house you like and can afford it, then go for it - dont beat yourself up about if it will be cheaper in a years time etc. You'd have paid a shed load on rent I expect by then anyway!
Get in there!!

sad_gills_fan

GreenB wrote:

How long as it been on the market for and what part of the country are you in?

It's been on the market for 5 weeks, 4 viewers with one having a 2nd viewing. It's in Kent but not really posh bit, local to all amenities, schools, trains for London etc.

Trouble for us is that we've found a house we really like and I just know it's gonna be sold before we can get a buyer. Ho hum.
It's up for £145k which is average for the road.

Never mind, if it doesn't sell, then it wasn't meant to be was it?!

summerday

Hi,

I feel that the house market performance is very influenced by media and public response- eg if we hear that prices are still rising quickly people will feel they want to buy while they are still rising and not at the peak, which of course means that prices will keep rising due to the demand, whereas if we hear that prices are falling/stagnant we won't buy houses and FTB play the waiting game which means few buyers and prices will indeed stagnate/fall.

No one can ever predict what will really happen in the housing market so I won't even try to myself. However I feel that if you are sure you can afford the repayments even if interest rates rise and you really want to buy just go for it. That's what me and my boyfriend did just over a year ago. We pay the same in mortgage payments as it would cost to rent a similar house in our area and we had saved a decent deposit. For us, being able to decorate and make what improvements we liked and not having the hassle of inspections etc meant that we were prepared to take the step of buying even in the current market. But if our only option was to borrow ridiculous multiples of our income I wouldn't have risked it just for the sake of getting on the property ladder.

Incidentally in some very developed countries like Japan and Switzerland prices have risen so high that either the only option is to get a 50 or 75 year mortgage (yes really!!) or many people just have to accept that they will never be able to buy their own place. While like I said I am not at all trying to predict the market or saying that prices definitely won't fall I don't buy into the argument that 'what comes up must come down' and that because there has been a crash before there will definitely be another one.

Just my humble opinion though!

Sarah.x

ReportInvestor

Link - Council of Mortgage lenders expects no change from January 2005 - December 2007

When the industry body with a vested interest in keeping confidence in housing is so pessimistic, some people might be tempted to draw different conclusions from the "soft landing" their guestimated figures describe.

Then again, three years allows incomes to "catch up" with prices by a good 10%.