What about London???

morg_monster

I'm seeing prices still rising where we live in Balham, no drops on property bee in the <325,000 price range (not that there's much in that category!) in the last 2-3 months.
Surbiton, where we hope (wish!) to buy in the summer, I am seeing maybe 3 or 4 drops a week of £5-£10k on 2 bed flats which started for between 270-300k - there are a LOT of these in surbiton! I don't know if its symptomatic of a crash/correction yet or just people in a rush to move. Also I wonder whether people think at the moment that it is better to put their property up for sale at a high price that they know is unattainable, and then drop, thus making buyers feel like they are getting a bargain!!
I feel many of them may be BTLs being sold up as there are lots on rightmove with pic after pic of empty rooms with no furniture.

I think you were looking in Surbiton last year penelope? - still plenty of those ex-council houses hanging around in hobill walk / smith street stubbornly refusing to drop a penny!

Little_Chicken

It's a load of rubbish that the economy in London is all doom and gloom. A downturn in the market just means more insolvencies, business restructuring and re-financing. The private equity firms, lawyers, consultancies will have a field day - as will the big corporate divisions of banks. And the job losses will be counteracted by growth in these areas. I'm looking for a job at the moment and it's one of the first industries to lose out from cost cutting, and there are jobs around.

I don't listen to anything on the news, or in the papers, I imagine the UK Government is pleased we're more concerned about our own materialistic greed than the war in Iraq, Global warming, famine in Africa, human rights issues in China etc. as it means they can continue with no resistance.

Oooooh! look at me - sounds like a rant:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

carolt

pickledpink wrote: »

London is in a class of its own as far as property is concerned. Most homeowners in London know that they can get very good rents for their property and so are more inclined to wait until the properties rise again before selling.

Properties which were overpriced anyway, or undesirable ones will need to come down if the owners want to sell (but that applies to the whole of the UK) but London as a whole has such a demand from people wishing to buy (or rent) that it seems to escape the price falls compared to the rest of the country.

Thanks accidental, but most deserved, if only for a great laugh.

Most homeowners know they can get good rents!!!!! Like 2% yield!!!

Ha ha ha ha ha........... :rotfl:

snoopy78

If there is a really big crash London could be the worst effected, I was told in the last crash that London was hit very hard as the prices have further to fall than anywhere else in the country.

Also give that London relys on the Financial services to prop up house prices and those boys ain't going to see big bonuses for a good few years, and potentially huge job losses to boot. All this could spell doom for London, although as usual it will be the first to recover and prices will always be a lot higher than the rest of the UK so its all relative.

morg_monster

I think it will be interesting to see whether the city boys who bought BTL property in the last few years with their massive bonuses sell up en masse or not.
If they do, then I could see the cycle of increased supply -> lower prices -> FTBs rush in -> decreased supply -> prices go back up happening a lot quicker in London. I think a lot of FTBs currently renting in the London area will just jump at the chance of being able to afford their first step on the property ladder AND stay in London, rather than having to move out and commute in, which is what most have to do at the moment. I can potentially see this pushing prices back up again reasonably fast in London - since many BTL properties are the kind of places FTBs want to buy - I just can't see london-based FTBs (with good salaries) waiting for prices to fall even further once they see a place they like, in an area they like, drop into their price bracket.
course if the city boys hold on tight then this is all betty swollox... and may be even if the don't... As someone said above, there's plenty of money to be made from companies going bust... the accountants will be rubbing their hands with glee! but its just my POV from where me and many of my friends are at the moment...

happinessfactory

I don't know about whether prices fall hardest in London, but people have much, much, much higher mortgages here, whereas their salaries aren't scaled in the same way.

Everyone I know in their mid-thirties who has managed to buy a family house (4 bedrooms and garden) within Zones 1 and 2 is on 3.5Xjoint income and 75% LTV.

Some friends of mine - he is a banker, she is in legal recruitment (solicitors, not secretaries), both aged 33 and with a little girl aged 2 - bought a £1.55 million house in Wandsworth last Summer. They are on 85% LTV and 4Xjoint salary but thought it was "worth the belt-tightening to buy a house we'll live in for 20 years".

I know for a fact that houses that would have sold for £750k in my Zone 2 neighbourhood last Summer are now selling for £705k (though asking prices have actually risen, perhaps to give people the illusion they're getting a bargain. Do estate agents not realise people spending that kind of money usually have sufficient brains to do some Land Registry research first???)

Last year, our friends told us we were "stupid" to restrict our budget to 30% LTV and 3Xhighest earner only. We're not bankers so it's very satisfying to be having the last laugh financially. Sometimes fortune favours the meek;)

m00m00

I'm seeing very similar percentage figures for reductions in the 2 london postcodes I'm monitoring (E1, SE1), to that I'm seeing in other areas of the country I'm monitoring.