Nope. Not around here.
A little input from a Midlander here .
We sold our home 12 months ago for £850k to the first people that viewed it, within 24 hours of it going to market. Unfortunately, the house we were looking to buy was taken off the market so we stayed put until we could find something else. Having found something earlier this year, we re-marketed and officially accepted an offer yesterday of £805k after being on the market for just over 2 months .
I think this is a pretty good indication of how demand is falling and prices are easing.
Oh, and your pound goes a lot further around here than down south
Nope. Not around here.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Not all doom and gloom out in the market, especially where I am. Listed my house 2 weeks ago and after 9/10 viewings (lncluding a few seconds) I’m under offer to a cash buyer (zero requirement for a mortgage) at over the asking price.
Have a house that I’m interested in and hope it all comes together…..fingers crossed 🤞
My wife’s firm in Norfolk hasn’t seen any drop in conveyancing and they are watching it very closely.
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Yes, even though I’m £45k down on what I had last year, the house I’m buying is £200k cheaper than last year so I’m happy enough. I’m not sure that’s all down to market prices easing though. It’s a combination of being overpriced in the first place and the vendors urgency to sell now.
Apparently last months file openings are almost double than the average of the last six months, it’s the highest since 2021. Really odd market at the moment, perhaps like you said it’s niche based on property type and they just happen to be getting that type.
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I follow the market very closely, there seems very little change around Chelmsford, Essex. Possibly some higher end properties are hanging around a little longer than they should, but much is moving expeditiously at sensible prices judging by the sold boards. I think at best the speculation has dropped out of the market with a price correction of-2.5% or thereabouts locally. Anyone trying to take the proverbial just will not sell.
Sounds a net win, 200K down seems a huge drop!
Two of the big houses in my street have gone up for sale recently, one for £675k and one for £625k, so will be interesting to see what they go for. Once is very nice inside, one is surprising poor finished for the bedrooms. Both would be a notable upgrade for us but just cant afford the mortgage payments ;-(
I think the biggest issue in todays market is restoration/ refurb costs go back 5-7 years plumbers, sparks and builders cost day rate were palatable, today you can easily double those rates if you can even get someone to take on the job.
Theres some properties out there that on the face of it look cheap until you factor in the ‘real cost’ of getting to the standard you desire at which point your better going for the finished article.
https://news.sky.com/story/house-pri...years-12931769
So glad we have the forum experts otherwise I would never know the truth !!!!
Prices are down around 13% YoY on average in real terms so you could say we're in the middle of a 'crash'. If inflation sticks around 5% for the next year and prices drop another couple of percent (both conceivable) that will be pushing a 20% correction.
It’s not helpful to conflate price with inflation or normal practice. The usual LR stats just track price, going up or down it’s just price. Inflation is another matter all together.
If you want to rebase historical data with inflation and then rebase forecasts with inflation forecast overlays you can never see the wood for the trees.
Not gone down hardly at all where I am to be honest. Just a lot less on the market, people baton down the hatches, supply reduces which maintains the prices.
So where are folk putting their money these days then if house prices are falling and B2L is being crushed? Savings accounts are outpaced by inflation, and even trusty Rolex can't be relied upon to appreciate. Where does the smart money go? Stock market? Overpay the pension? Vegas? Number plates? Cash under the mattress? Gold? Decorative spoons?
I am wondering this myself.
I’ve found a 6% fixed rate bond for 1 year but I’m sure inflation is more than 6%
REITs via SS ISA?
Been reading about “ISA Millionaires”. £50k pa tax free at 5% but that’s a lot of years at £20k pa (and available money to begin with) to get there.
I'd be surprised if any even remotely safe investments will beat current inflation. I can't risk gambling my money, because what I have now is pretty much all I'll ever have. So 4 or 5% returns have to do and I accept that the value of my savings is effectively dropping. It'll still see me alright if I'm sensible.
Pricing houses is a strange old business and very much depends on the personalities involved I think. I moved last year and still look at rightmove occasionally. In my area there is still a property up for sale that we went to look at about 15 months ago(!). I think it’s been reduced in price once but is still horribly overpriced for what is a very average house, and even more so now given the falls in prices and general slowing of the market.
So, what is that guy doing? Maybe he doesn’t really want to sell and move. Maybe he’s been mugged off by the agent. Maybe he’s hoping that someone will just fall in love with it and pay a big fat premium (having seen it I can honestly say that will not happen). Maybe it’s just greed.
Whatever he won’t be selling that house at that price. So what’s the point!? Funny business. Round here (north Herts) sensibly priced family houses are still being snapped up from what I can see
Yep I think that applies to many once they have a number in their head its 'etched in.
What's hard to get over to these price rigid people is that if they are buying a replacement then its all part of the deal if you sell cheaper you buy cheaper (price to change) which should be the financial focus, if anything lower at both ends is good as it reduces Stamp Duty.
Yes there will always be the seller that's selling up and not replacing and going to live in a tent so loses out on prior figures but they I assume are a tiny percentage.
Swings - Roundabouts
Last edited by TKH; 2nd August 2023 at 12:20.
Works for the folk who can pull it off, but the big question is how many are sailing towards unaffordable mortgage rate rises on the near horizon that may force a sale at lower prices? No idea if that’s a big or small number of people, but seems that’s the key population.
Spoons, vegas and bonds, got it!
Chuck it at a fund and leave it be, or do you tend to proactively manage? I’m so risk adverse then I’m convinced the moment my money goes into shares the associated companies will promptly collapse!
Jokes on you guys, I’m already deep into spoons, just pumping the market with my innocent question
50 years, yikes, think I need a quicker path lol. I have criminally underused ISA allowance in the past though, big mistake!
6% is pretty good (Atom are offering 1 and 2 year fixes at 6%). But then it gets taxed to oblivion and starts to look really short of the inflation mark.
All those years of ISA being at 1% and filling it up now paying off with 8k of interest coming in a year now. Every cloud
There was a really interesting chap on last nights The News Agents podcast who spoke a lot of sense about house prices.
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Off Topic
but this gives you an idea of the costs of buying and selling a house in France
Asking price : 293,500€ which includes a normal selling Estate Agents fees of 18,500€, paid by Seller.
Plus: French buying taxes and local fees, termed as the Notaire’s fees of 20,900€
So Seller gets 275,000€
and Buyer pays Euros 314,400€ for a house that has a market value of 275,000€
Last edited by BillN; 2nd August 2023 at 16:41.
FWIW, of the last three houses that have sold in my area this year 2 have exceeded the asking price and the other was within a whisker of it.
And all of them were over-priced, IMHO.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
That is interesting, I guess it underlines how the UK is far from one homogenous market. I'm wondering what level of price/ property, if the buyers of these properties are local or incomers and cash or mortgage purchases...
I heard from my sister who works for an EA in Banbury that the market at the low, mid end was still moving along quite briskly but at the 500,000 gbp and above level things were quite slow, she attributed this to the interest rate rises, the consequentially much tougher nut to make payments on the bigger loans, which makes some sense I think.
I think the UK property market right now is a bit like the Rolex market which in turn is a bit like a nightclub at 2am when the lights turn on.
Prom queens remain prom queens but 70% of the stock is getting humbled, some of it brutally.
seen a few asking price reductions, but only a smidgen away from the 30% increases over the last few years, also seen a few more who have double agent'ed, don't know how that will help although the sellers think it will.
Todays BOE IR increase wont help.
It’s never broad brush. There are always pockets that do better and pockets that do worse. Prices would need to REALLY crash to lose what they have gained over the pandemic. There is still a lot of demand and not enough supply. There was always bout to be some sort of correction. With all the pent up demand as soon as interests rates start to come down and borrowing becomes more affordable in image all the losses made and maybe more will come back.
And whilst we are in the mood for favourite financial quotes:
“Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” - John Maynard Keynes
...also...
"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable." - John Kenneth Galbraith
This one made me smile -
Technical analysis is pretty much a horoscope astrological chart for men
Discuss.
My former neighbours’ estate has just agreed the sale of their house at approx. 13.5% less than their valuation as the family wanted a quick sale.
However, the agreed price is still around 40% more than I bought 3 years ago, and their asking price would have been a considerable increase.
House prices went crazy at one stage with the access to cheap lending, so it’s no surprise that we are noticing an initial stop in further price increases, and some reduction.
It's just a matter of time...
Going to start watching the market, as we now want to downsize then buy here and in Spain, we can then do 180 days in each and get away fro these Winters. The objective is the sale will fund both.