House price increase

[TandemFlux]

I recently read that house prices have gone up by 8.5% over the
Space of a year. Does it feel like that to you? I'm hoping it won't go bananas again for the sake if my kids.

[lalalonglegs]

Imo, they went up massively during late 2013/the first half of 2014 and have come down a bit since then in London. Now there are no plans for mansion tax or BTL curbs, I can see it hotting up again.

[TandemFlux]

That's interesting. I suspect we are experiencing a ripple effect here. In my area (south west) it was busy spring 2014, then busy again starting February 2015, then a short lull election time, then busy again now.

[AryaUnderfoot]

There was an article in the Telegraph last month that said house prices in our area are 13.6% higher than last year. It certainly feels like houses are moving really quickly - most that are under 450k sell within a couple of weeks.

Then again, our town (bland new town) has always benefitted from lower house prices than some of the naicer surrounding market towns with their antique cheese shops and dreadful parking.

[Slothlorian]

Hardly anything for sale around here. So frustrating as we have sold and can't buy. What does come up has 4 or 5 people after it and that pushes the price up :-(

[Applesauce29]

Where I live (South East London), there are a massive amount of new builds going up, which in my opinion are massively overpriced (£500k - 750k for an 800sq foot 2 bed depending on commute to city / Canary Wharf and views). Most are bought by overseas investors, many of whom haven't been to the area (which has a high concentration of social housing), and are buy-to-let. There are lots of rentals coming up which is driving down rents, and I believe when the 20 odd new developments are completed over the next 3 years prices will go down regardless of whether there is a crash. The London market is crazy at the moment! I hope the referendum / changes to housing benefit / controls on buy-to-let (which the Tories will prob never do) curb the massive growth. Investors shouldn't be able to treat London property as a go to "reserve" asset!

[itdc]

In North London (a home owner residential focus area) I don't see the price changed much compared to last half of 2014. I have seen a lot of properties that asking 10% more than last year has been on the markets for a few months and didn't sell. Definitely not as crazy as first half of 2014, partially due to FTB can not keep up with the pace any more.

[notagenius8]

Not seeing any signs of house price increase abating in southeast London. A lot of the demand is from domestic buyers not foreign investors, especially for period houses. In the 500k-600k range there is as much competition from people on the second rung of the ladder as first time buyers.

We are trying to find something now rather than later in the year, in case the market heats up properly again over the summer, and now the election is over. Grim really.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

I'd say the market is steady where we are in the South east.

[grumbleina]

East London- the up up and up some more seems to have slowed a bit. No drop but I think a bit of a plateau. I expect it'll do it all over again at some point though. Crossrail might get interesting.

[StonedGalah]

We are in the last bit of SW London that is yet to 'boom' however to buy a 3 bed house would cost double what we paid for our two bed house now.

Luckily our house is big enough for us and dc2 is dd2 so the girls can share. But if l was in a small flat/smaller house we wouldn't have tried for dc2.

Or made the decision to leave the UK asap.

[sianihedgehog]

They've gone up slightly more here, I think. :(

[IssyStark]

Unfortunately it does feel as if they are still rising here on the south coast (port city, nothing pretty). I keep a close eye on what's happening here as I'd love to move somewhere bigger.

It's a complete pain because the rungs are stretching out again so it looks as if we're going to be stuck where we are as I'll be buggered if I'll pay an extra £100k to get a house with higher ceilings but no more overall useable space just to move up the ladder. I've been thinking the market was unsustainable for almost two decades now and I've been wrong all the time so what do I know...

[kalidasa]

My impression (North London) is that prices peaked around the middle of last year and then dropped a bit, but are beginning to rise again post-election.

[imip]

East london also, and were watching house prices rise dramatically, still.

Our house has double in the five years since we bought it - how is it possible. When we bought ours, it was sitting on the market for ages, it was hard to get a mortgage without a huge deposit, despite a good income. We were so bloody lucky to buy when we did. It's a new build, not very sexy and needed a lot of work as it had been neglected in its 10 years of life. But now they are snapped up really quickly!

[alasdairhandc]

Price increases vary depending on where you are, what's nearby, what street your on and even what sort of house you live in.

Yes, many valuations are done by 'comparables' (i.e. seeing what else sold nearby) but as EA's we have to take into account other factors;

Is it South facing? North facing? Is this house the same size as the others on the road that we're using as comparables? How long ago was the last recorded sale, and how much have values changed since that date. If the data is old, we need to go further afield for a comparable. Is the décor good? Are there any structural problems? Is it attractive to the type of buyer looking in this area? What does this house have that others do not, or what does it not have that others do?

There's a great deal of 'compare and contrast' with valuing that has an influence on prices, but it's safe to say that demand massively outstrips supply and that will keep prices buoyant on it's own. I work in an extremely high capital growth area of Hertfordshire and that is due to it's extreme desirability. Other areas will fare differently, but then the factors which impact the value will also be different.

The reason for all that waffle is that it's easy for national stats to say "house prices have increase b x%" but that could mean that they've gone up by 8% in Richmond and have fallen by 2% in Stoke on Trent - it's a bit of a non-event as house price trends tend to be hyper-local.

Take a look at home.co.uk and punch in your postcode to see house price performance stats. It's very interesting. Also try Mouseprice.com and the land registry website. That's where the hard data comes from.