Why do you think asking prices are going up?

[Mandy2003]

When nothing is selling. For instance, when we first started looking at 2 bedroom bungalows for my Dad in a particular area the average asking price was £210,000. Now very similar properties are advertised at £230,000 on average. Is it some kind of cunning plan to really prevent anything selling?

Because many sellers are living in 2007. There is a perception that their house has an intrinsic "worth" and that the rules of the market somehow don't apply to their house. Then they wonder why they're 6 months in with barely a viewing.

Better to look at Zoopla a what they really sold for rather than the asking price.

They're not going up where I am but nothing has sold in my village for months either so where sellers are desperate, they are all coming down! They probably expect some bargaining power as most people aren't paying asking prices from what I can see. I find Zoopla hopelessly inaccurate in giving an idea of what a property might be worth, but you can at least see the achieved prices of what sold over the past few months and use that to bargain with..

Because Estate Agents are over valuing property to get the instruction. Then when the vendors get no offers at that price they either a) drop the price or b) take a much lower offer.

Estate agents have such little stock they are over-valuing properties to win instructions. Daft vendors believe the agents because they want to. A decent inteval after they have got the instructions the agents suggest a price drop.

Also. buyers know the market is not healthy and want to get a bargain. Agents and vendors think by asking too much in the first place they can offer what seems like a good price drop and still be quids in. I suppose some buyers are naive enough to fall for this.

Personally I think people are anticipating that a buyer will expect to negotiate and bring the price down so they are inflating the price so that they can 'do a deal' and still get what they want. For example, a £200k house goes on the market for £230k; the buyer gets '£30k off' and the vendor gets the £200k they wanted in the first place.

And estate agents don't help with unrealistic valuations.

There are several houses for sale in my street and they're all hideously overvalued. Seriously, up to £100k overpriced (which is a lot on a house that could realistically sell for £220k). Almost identical houses in the next street are on for far less and there is no discernible difference between the streets.

Not a single property has sold in over a year, despite 8 or so having come on the market (several have been taken off because they have absolutely no chance of selling for what they want). I think many of them haven't had a single viewing. They all go with the same EA, which is clearly the one that offers the highest valuations, but seems to be selling almost nothing.

The ones that have dropped this prices have gone to an 'offers in excess of' price that is still £30k more than what anyone's going to get for a mortgage valuation. It's a shame because the people did overpay in the first place, so they need to get this price even to get their money back (although once fees and expenses are factored in, that's still a loss too).

One of the houses switched to being for rent, but it's been empty or months and months because the rent is far too high. The house is the same size as ours but they want £300 more a month in rent for it. And ours is at the top end of the rental scale for this area.

The street is mostly full of older people who bought many years ago and refuse to accept that it is no longer 2007, but they can afford not to move. Those who do have to move are in a dreadful situation.

"The street is mostly full of older people who bought many years ago and refuse to accept that it is no longer 2007, but they can afford not to move. "

I have a huge amount of sympathy for those who were duped into buying in 2005-2007 by getting caught up in the hysteria of it all.

I have no sympathy at all for those who bought years ago, experienced 300% house price inflation and cannot afford to move because they released equity on their home to fund their lifestyle. That they now expect some poor person to effectively pay for this why the whole country is in the shitter!