Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

What is your opinion of the market?

90 replies

alliwant · 19/07/2011 12:58

Is it going up or down in your area? Is much moving? Move buyers or sellers out there? What percentage below asking price is average? DOes anyone actually get the asking price?? Don't want to turn down an offer that might be the best we'll get at the moment! TIA

OP posts:
halfbabyhalfbiscuit · 19/07/2011 20:33

alliwant - we're in Bristol (hence the schools nightmare!) but thanks for the offer!

TBH, even if we were looking in a different area of Bristol, I think the picture would be very different (e.g. market being stagnant, houses being on the market for ages, having huge price reductions etc) so it's very hard to generalise about the market - even locally.

SybilBeddows · 19/07/2011 20:41

I thought increasingly people don't bother registering with agents these days as it is all on Rightmove and other internet property search sites.

10k is a tiny reduction on a 250k asking price tbh. I don't know when you bought but sadly a lot of sellers are going to have to take a loss if they want to sell, it's just the reality of a falling market.

The Economist reckoned UK houses were around 20% overpriced the other week.

beanlet · 19/07/2011 20:42

In yorkshire - nice leafy bit - market is just dire. House been on the marjet (mostly with lazy agent) for nearly 2 years now and we're about to give up. It's because it's in the first-time buyers' bracket of the market, and there are none. Apparently half million plus houses are moving just fine though Hmm

SybilBeddows · 19/07/2011 20:53

mylovelymonster - I'm with you. It's an investment bubble, it's bursting just like any other, and thank goodness. It has gone far enough that the consequences for the country are pretty negative overall.

Thromdimbulator · 19/07/2011 21:00

mylovelymonster no flaming from me. With you 100 percent on that post.

mylovelymonster · 19/07/2011 21:13

We are in an appalling situation right now - and guess who'll lose out? Hard-working folks - not the bankers, not the politicians, not the super-rich, but all of us. It's not a housing ladder, but a stinking illegal pyramid, where all the money has flowed upwards to the now comfortably down-sized, bankers, fecking EAs (loathsome group), and hobby 'property developers'.

A new instruction in the town where I live today - small three-bed Victorian semi/end terrace. Bog standard. Decent back garden, busy road, chokka-block on-road parking. I would link. but not fair on vendors. Guess how much!! £395k.

(Apologies for my millitant mood this evening, but am feeling a tad low about the whole thing).

mylovelymonster · 19/07/2011 21:14

I did fall off my chair sobbing laughing Smile

Think I might do a Reggie Perrin if it sells.

mylovelymonster · 19/07/2011 21:16

Wow Grin Thanks for the non-flaming x

SybilBeddows · 19/07/2011 21:18

I think a year ago you would have been flamed to high heaven but things have changed, the market has stalled and it's looking pretty naive now to think it's going to recover.

Mandy21 · 19/07/2011 21:22

I think there is demand in certain places here in some respects due to the relocation of BBC staff to Salford Quays. Like I said, I think it depends on the particular village / town - everywhere has its pockets where property is still in demand / you wouldn't touch with a barge pole so its really can vary between one place and something a mile down the road.

noddyholder · 19/07/2011 21:27

Definitely about to tumble again. I have just sold and bought somewhere else in the middle of all the solicitor stuff atm When I was looking several houses we liked sold and are all now back on I think surveyors are down valuing now like they did post 2007 silly prices. I think our buyers have paid too much and in turn so have we so am thinking there may be some negotiations once their survey is back. It is about time anyway in Brighton some tiny 2 beds for nearly 400k!

mylovelymonster · 19/07/2011 21:35

Who would buy a tiny two bed for £400k? A young professional with a sizeable salary? Surely would want a party pad with entertaining space? Older downsizers with money from a larger property sale wouldn't need to look at central Brighton. It wouldn't be big enough for a family.....

I mean...for £400k, wouldn't you hope to get a bit more????

munstersmum · 19/07/2011 21:37

Following this thread with interest. Have a couple of friends looking to move within the area & they've both commented this week that houses round here (East Yorks) are starting to move. Seems to be the middle ground eg family houses on large developments not necessarily new builds. A small 4 bed went within a week at @£370k.

SingingBear · 19/07/2011 21:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SybilBeddows · 19/07/2011 21:44

Munstersmum I'm in E Yorks and that chimes with what I'm seeing on Rightmove - the overpriced big houses are piling up and the ftb houses and flats for which there are no ftbs are piling up but the middle are moving best.

mylovelymonster · 19/07/2011 21:46

Same here, and number of friends also in same position. Lots of demand, just not at current pricing levels.

munstersmum - some houses will sell. Your friends will just have to decide what they want for their money and if they are prepared to wait, negotiate, let a few things go. I am very much prepared to wait. I am also prepared to be very wrong about the whole thing.

munstersmum · 19/07/2011 21:47

There was an article in this weeks Sunday Times. Most areas to expect house price falls but pockets within to outperform. York expected to be a pocket.

noddyholder · 19/07/2011 21:51

I don't know who buys but they do sell. Our house atm only has 2 beds as I used one room for a big bathroom. We only have a mezzanine sleeping deck for guests so it is a 2 bed terrace ridiculous price and we had 2 couple fighting over it! I assumed they would be rich young things from London byt they were both average locals very young both with new babies. I really don't know how they afford it

mylovelymonster · 19/07/2011 21:59

This might interest you. Can't vouch for how meaningful/accurate it is, based on record low volume of sales...........

Thromdimbulator · 19/07/2011 22:13

Moneyweek's Merryn Somerset Webb seems to have summed it up here. There are fewer houses for sale in Britain than you think

"...many of the sellers out there are only sellers at bubble prices. As long as they can afford not to sell and as long as they think waiting will make them richer they won't actually enter the market. They'll only tease it. "

SybilBeddows · 19/07/2011 22:27

'as long as they think waiting will make them richer'
I wonder how long they will go on thinking that ; there have recently been a rash of articles about how property isn't actually a very good hedge against inflation.
What I wonder is whether the general belief that property only ever goes up will be replaced by a 'yikes, it's going to fall' sentiment or a tenacious optimism that it will pick up next year or the year after. It might be very hard to dislodge the idea that you will always make money on your house even after it patently stops being the case, because it is so deep-rooted in this country.
Markets aren't logical, they're a lot of people not really knowing what's going on and copying each other.

greentown · 20/07/2011 08:23

Houses selling well in my area of SE London, at prices up at 2007 levels. Flats also going but not so high prices. More buyers than sellers about.

gettingeasier · 20/07/2011 08:37

I am in North Herts and sold in January quickly but it took a while to find a 3 bed semi where I wanted. Demand is high and not much for sale so you have to get in quick if you want somewhere and I paid the asking price of £470,000 which felt insane for a 3 bed semi albeit a very nice one.

I am no expert but I think certain areas will hold their value ok eg where I am will always be close to London,good road links , nice countryside , good schools etc and those things wont change whatever the economy is doing.

Well thats certainly what I hope as I have put everything into this post divorce !!

proteins · 20/07/2011 09:21

I'm in Surrey. Asking prices in my area generally are coming down; I used to think "What??!" whenever a new property came up, but now it's more "Hmm, that's almost doable maybe we should arrange a viewing quick."

It seems to me that 2/3 bedroom houses which are reasonably priced and marketed well (lots of calls from EA, nice photos, Open Houses) go from 'Sale' to 'Sold Subject To Contract' within a couple of months. But those properties then continue to stay as 'STC'. I've also seen a few come back onto the market, one such property has flipped their 'Sold STC' boards seven times.

I feel that I can afford to sit and wait for a better (not perfect, but not too many compromises) place to come up. I don't feel pressured into offering the asking price for a maybe-we-can-learn-to-love-it place and then being worried of others offering even more.

SkelleyBones · 20/07/2011 09:37

'as long as they think waiting will make them richer'

Well of course it will over a 10 year period, like anything apart from some stocks and shares, it's time that accumulates wealth, most people haven't got the time though.