PFC Editor's Blog - propertyfinder.com

Leading agents call bottom of market

2009-05-19T14:36:30Z

Danielle Candler www.propertyfinder.com

]]> Two of the UK’s leading estate agencies this week called the bottom of the market, revealing that buyers are returning, the number of house sales is picking up and that, in some areas, prices are even rising again after months of huge drops.

Knight Frank says that “the situation has improved markedly since the turn of the year” and that although prices continue to fall in the first four months of the year, it was at a "much reduced pace".

“We’ve seen drops of between one and two per cent a month as opposed to to the three to four per cent monthly drops we became routinely used to in the run up to the end of 2008,” a spokesperson says.

“And by April our prime central London index even managed to post a positive result, with prices climbing 0.4 per cent – the first rise for 13 months.”

Another high profile agent, Hamptons International, is also feeling much more positive – revealing this week that 13 per cent more buyers registered with it in April year on year, and that sales jumped by 27 per cent over the same period.

“There have been three consistently good months of UK sales activity and although this is not at the boom time levels of 2007, it is certainly better than for some time,” says Jane Jordgensen of Hamptons International.

“In fact, vendors are three times more likely to secure a sale than this time last year. The start of 2009 has definitely gone as well as expected and we are beginning to witness healthy levels of trading.”

The only problem for agents is a shortage of houses to sell – Hamptons says the number of new instructions is down 40 per cent year on year, while Knight Frank reports properties available for sale down by 28 per cent.

Neither company can say for sure why the market is improving – given continued gloomy headlines in the nation’s papers – but a partial answer lies in mortgage affordability which the Council of Mortgage Lenders says is at its cheapest since 2004.

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How much are prices REALLY going down?

2009-03-25T15:57:47Z

When is a house price index not accurate? The answer, it would seem, is when the market is in freefall.

Look in the papers and you will find a stream of information about house prices from a plethora of sources including the Halifax, Royal Chartered Institute of Surveyors, Land Registry, Rightmove, Nationwide, Hometrack and the Financial Times.

All claim (or are quoted as claiming) showing which way house prices are heading every month and during the property boom we all stood by, our glasses charged with champagne, applauding the extraordinary rises recorded by these respected property names. And as long as they showed prices going up, most of us (including property journalists) were happy to agree heartily with them.

But with the exception of the Land Registry, which records prices paid for property on completion, all of them are flawed in one way or another. Some ask agents or surveyors how sales are fairing in or how they are feeling about the market (RICs and Hometrack), whereas the others merely record asking prices.

But are any of these a good way to refection of property prices? I would say not and now that prices are falling at a very fast rate none of them really agree. Here some examples from recent stories I've run; all annual figures - 'Poll of polls' by agent Chesterton/Humberts (-15.3%); Rightmove (-9.1%); Halilfax (-17.5%); Dept Communities and Local Government (-11.5%) Nationwide (-17.6%) and Land Registry (-15.1%).

So what would you suggest we do, I hear you ask.

The answer is that there is no such thing as a national house price survey. Property markets are by definition 'local' and at best regional. While one postcode witnesses a 5% drop, its posher neighbour might register a 5% hike.

National indexes can only indicate very general trends - up, static or down. Anything else just gives us all pointlessly sleepless nights. But for the moment they are the only figures available - and until a way of reporting local, street-by-street figures I'm afraid it will be the same-old, same-old.

'Buy this flat and we'll give you £20,000'

2009-02-02T12:19:04Z

It had to happen eventually and now it has. Builders are starting to make buyers offers that are often almost too good to be true – if the deal on the table from one London apartment developer is anything to go by

Buy one of the upmarket one or two bedroom apartments at Ipsus01 at Hardwicks Square in the heart of Wandsworth to the west of central London, and up to eight extraordinary incentives are on offer worth nearly £20,000.

This includes a £10,000 discount on the price, Waitrose vouchers worth £4,160 plus a free Virgin active gym membership worth £900, a £1,032 travel card, £1,200 towards your mobile phone bill, a free DVD rental every week plus a cinema pass for two (together worth £470) and the property’s £1,175 council tax paid for the first year.

Prices at Ipsus01 start at £249,995 for a one-bedroom apartment and £350,000 for a two-bedroom unit so the cheapest flats come with a 7.6 per cent discount on the original asking price. And if buyers aren’t interested in the deal then Ipsus01’s developer say it will offer a cash alternative as well.

More information from Hamptons International on 020 7758 8434.