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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think London property prices are falling - am I mistaken?

34 replies

AbsentmindedWoman · 26/04/2018 20:37

Out of curiosity I took a look at property prices (I rent) in my new local area and surrounds.

Loads of 2 bedroom apartments in Islington and Hackney for £500k or less. Lots have been reduced in recent weeks/ months.

I don't think the London property bubble will ever burst dramatically, but has there been a slight slow down in the last while? Maybe due to Brexit. Or am I just so used to seeing stupidly high prices for Hampstead that this area looks reasonably priced compared to there? Would you buy property in London at present?

OP posts:
Ofspartacus · 26/04/2018 20:39

Yeah definitely. My friend had her flat in Stoke Newington on the market since last summer. Had to drop the price by £40k to sell.

When she bought it it was within 24 hours of it going on market and they had lost others before for being too slow.

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 26/04/2018 20:54

Wow, that's crazy - the 24 hour turnaround when buying!

£40K is a fair chunk to drop the price by. Things really do seem a little slower.

OP posts:
Ohmydayslove · 26/04/2018 20:55

West Midlands here. Prices insane and rising and selling in a day. Wierd

LemonysSnicket · 26/04/2018 20:56

People are scared and selling because of Brecit. It’ll come back up x

Ohmydayslove · 26/04/2018 21:00

Bollocks it’s not Brexit.

Other cities are more attracting and far cheaper. Major banks settling in Birmingham now. Manchester and brum vibrant and lots of new investment and oppertunitues. Great villages near the centre, good transport links and cheaper to live .

stayhomeclub · 26/04/2018 21:03

South Yorkshire here, similar to ohmydayslove things in the right areas are selling in days. Prices rising, house a few houses down sold before hitting rightmove for 25k more than we paid in the summer.

Someone did say to me today that prices in London are falling but the local market here in desirable areas is overheated.

Ohyesiam · 26/04/2018 21:06

You are not mistaken, it was on radio 4, so it must be true

Shitmother1 · 26/04/2018 21:06

Its not you, it’s happening and it’s making its way out of London to the south east also. I was an estate agent in London during brexit (selling mainly to investors) the matket has dropped dramatically for us since.

FilthyforFirth · 26/04/2018 21:08

It's definitely happening. I have had to reduce my South London house as have several others in the area. It's a buyers market currently sadly!

Ohmydayslove · 26/04/2018 21:12

Totally Stay a 4 bed semi sold in our village for £500,000 day 1 on market. Station 4 mins away and 25 mins to brum city centre.

It’s crazy here.

Had our house valued. It’s 5 bed, 2 bath huge garden for £650.Loads of good city jobs 20 mins away from here in brum. Dh spent last 30 years working in London and now in brum it’s fabulous. No hideous tube or crowds and big houses with big gardens and same daily rate.

Times are changing

DappledThings · 26/04/2018 21:14

Absolutely. We were valued at 600k by 3 different agents last August. Dropped to 575 then 550 in October and December and completed yesterday having accepted 515 in late January

londonrach · 26/04/2018 21:19

I agree. Ive left london but notice flats (who can afford a house) are sticking in the area we lived. Im noisy as like to look at the area. when we lived there flats sold without being viewed for over the asking price to buy to letters who had flats already un the same block. We left london and our area now houses are selling within a day or two for more than asking price. Ive had two frinds trying to buy for 6 months and keep losing out! Saying that there 1000s of new homes being built in my town so thats going to effect the market (downwards id think)

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 26/04/2018 21:25

Times definitely are changing with other cities booming! I think that's really exciting. Not UK but not far away - I looked at moving home to Ireland and property there has really risen, both renting and buying. Unfortunately, for me the job situation wouldn't be worth the move so could not really consider it.

So London is stagnating a bit, when everywhere else gains strength. Have things ever played out like this before, in other times when the property market here slowed?

OP posts:
ilovewinterpansies · 26/04/2018 21:30

London is definitely slowing. I've been looking closely at the market for almost a year and it's staggering how much prices have fallen.

Depressing for people like me trying to sell! But also good for people like me trying to buy because prices especially for 4bed houses have dropped loads....except I can't buy because I can't sell!! Grrr.

Cheerymom · 26/04/2018 23:28

Yes! I sold there, really great flat, on the market for 10 months, pre Brexit similar flats in the complex sold within a week, dropped original price by 35 grand and walked away happy as I moved to Ireland. Feel I got away at the right time, though London prices are so inflated and unreachable. As a teacher I could never buy now, they have to fall, balance out, allow people a chance. I know friends who have struggled to sell in the last year, the estate agents themselves told me they were relying on the Brexit effect to buy somewhere themselves! Can't see it going the way of the crash in the 80s though. Who knows?

annandale · 26/04/2018 23:31

Relative in Sussex has sold at about 30 grand below asking price.

Cheerymom · 26/04/2018 23:31

Absentmindedwoman, just saw your post. I've moved back, after 20 years. Yes Ireland is rising but still so affordable in comparison, outside Dublin. I get a job fairly quickly but can see why people moving to Dublin would struggle.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 26/04/2018 23:40

It's not just Brexit. Prices were insane and unaffordable for so many. At least once a day I am getting notices of reductions on newbuild flats, which were nearly all ludicrously overpriced anyway, and so often aimed at overseas investors. Developers must be getting the wind up, and about time too, IMO.

It's not just newbuilds, either - I've seen prices of older properties slowly coming down in a SW London area I've been watching for some time - not a fashionable area, but one where a dd was looking some years ago - prices had more or less doubled since about 2010. It was simply unsustainable.

curiouserand · 27/04/2018 00:03

In London and South East prices falling really noticeably and amounts of property for sale coming on the market all the time. I keep my eye on several eyes where I've lived or would like to, and in some the falls are dramatic. I'd say near me (edge of London) prices are down 15% from peak already. Generally 10-15% seems typical.

The most recent figures back me up - www.theguardian.com/money/2018/mar/12/london-property-prices-plunge-as-brexit-effect-deepens or www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/18/london-house-prices-fall-average-uk

It's not just Brexit - it's tax changes to BTL, it's threats to clamp down on dirty money, it's that house prices relative to incomes are now at their highest level ever (even higher than before the 2007/8 crash) - 14 times higher than average local earnings in London.

That is insane - it means a couple both working full time, both on average earnings, could borrow at most 9 times their single incomes. That still leaves a shortfall of 5X their gross salary to save to buy a property! That is just crazy and impossible.

Who is actually going to be buying all these bog standard London semis in Zone 4 or 5 at 700K? Who has that kind of money??

curiouserand · 27/04/2018 00:03

on several places, sorry...

curiouserand · 27/04/2018 00:05

The rest of the country will inevitable follow, but later - as has been the case in every single property crash.

Sonotcivil · 27/04/2018 01:52

I don't know @curiouserand. London is basically it's own market.
Cities outside of London are more popular then ever, more money being spent then ever ebfore. Banks and government slowly moving away from london.

People have realised prices are just stupid in London and companies have realised many staff can't afford to live there anymore.

BarbaraofSevillle · 27/04/2018 04:25

The other thing to consider is that, in the last few years, prices in London/SE have risen well above pre 2007 crash levels, while the rest of the country has stagnated and has only just got back up to those levels in last couple of years, so it could be that there's a London bubble waiting to burst that doesn't exist in the rest of the country.

Plus the effect of changes to the buy to let market, less interest from foreign buy to let investors, unaffordability in London pushing jobs and hence demand to other UK cities and a realisation that London isn't the be all and end all and the UK has several other large vibrant cities with jobs and lots going on.

A PP mentions that there is a 2 speed market in the UK and over the next few years it could be that prices in London fall while they increase in other cities and surrounding areas and the price gap that has grown over the last few years closes substantially.

qwertyuiopy · 27/04/2018 04:32

Estate agent mate says prices were inflated and had to start coming down sometime because they were ridiculously high, forced up by estate agents trying it on.

However, he says it’s still the best investment in the country long term and if you wait for the prices to be a more realistic level, in the short term too.

Lostlily · 27/04/2018 04:46

I think there is a down turn......I have been trying to sell my property for six months, have reduced it by £35k now Sad Cannot afford to drop it anymore as selling due to divorce and need to split equity and move on.
I am in the midlands 20 minutes from Birmingham, detached, huge garden, 2 double beds and loft room, kitchen and bathroom and extention all only two years old.... I love my home but need to sell, so many properties have been reduced I see it every day