What is the property market doing in your area atm? Flux in Sth Bucks....!

[deepest]

.....there have been mad bidding wars on the 3 houses that I viewed in June from cash buyers. So there is nothing I can do unless I temporarily up root my family and go into rented by selling up so that I am this same proceedable position.

.....also loads of houses that came on in May have been re-marketed as "reduced" (average dropped by £50k).....I imagine as a reaction to "bursting bubbles/over-heated/peak market" press speculation etc....and maybe an attempt to get interest in the proprty before this area closes down for the summer.

......have also seen the "dogs" come on the market at silly prices - really rotten houses -- but one of these dogs in my village has now sold at the silly price.

....there are also a lot of downsizers here - so older people who have a lot of equity in large family houses that they have brought families up in for over 20 years hold onto them until they judge it is the top of the market...when they sell to get max money for their retirement.

.....estate agent told me that £1m+ market was "sluggish" - but £400-900k manic

Interesting to see how things will go towards the back end of the year....

Whats happening in your neck of the woods?

We're also in South Bucks (Marlow area) and nothing is shifting here over £1m.

deepest you could be describing our village. I'm not aware of any bidding wars but I know a few places in the 400 - 500K mark that went very quickly to local buyers.

I think the market for large family houses in the £1m+ mark is quite slow because people moving out of London are expecting a lot more for their money and don't want to do the work that the "downsizers" houses often require - eg. provision for a live in nanny/au pair, state of the art broadband and mobile reception.

500K to £1M is really stagnant. My theory is that locals can't afford them and they don't appeal to the London market as they're often not the big family home that they are looking for.

Commuter belt south east here although we are rural; at a fair price properties are selling. Inflated prices aren't being achieved. Not much on the market at all, which is probably keeping prices higher.

That's a good point re the downsizers Isitmylibrarybook - a lot of evidence of that here too.

S Yorks, rural market town, lots of sold signs going up at the average property end of the market 150-250K. You can get a great 3/4 bed house for that here in lovely countryside. No silly bidding wars here though, an EA friend said they had a shortage of homes coming to the market. For 1 Million here you can get a 6/7 bed house with acres of land and stables!

Midlands.

Houses at the £800k plus end of the market go under offer very quickly IF they are sensibly priced.

Houses under £200 likewise.

Those in the middle seem to take an age to sell. There are houses here that have been on the market for over 12 months.

North Yorks, work for an estate agency in a small market town. Sales picked up a bit a month or two ago, but no increase in prices here and no mad bidding wars. Already signs of slowing down for the summer holidays for the past week. Shortage of homes coming on the market.

4 bed detached houses from £210,000 in rural location.

Interesting insights into why the £1m+ market is sluggish - agree that my neighbors in large family homes are hanging back longer to downsize to accommodate their boomerang 20 somethings. Have also seen the downsizers choose to stay in the same area, (private house swapping common) and keep working rather than flee to the coast etc.....and agree that some if these big houses where young families were raised from the 1960s -1990s need a lot of serious upgrading cosmetically and structurally and the layouts dont reflect modern family living. The ones that have sold have undergone the full on refurbs that must have cost £200k.

Very slow in West Hants.

Ours has been up for about 7 weeks, the first person who viewed really want it but can't sell theirs. We've only had about 8 other viewings- they all love it but they have a lot of choice and have always gone for something else.
It's a thatched cottage, so we were prepared for it to take a while, however the 2 other houses in the village are not selling either. Homes are usually snapped up very quickly here.

We're resigned to still be here at Christmas

We had 3 viewings in the first week then none for the last 4.5 weeks so will be changing agents and dropping it down to £1m in September I think.

We're not on the market yet but have been scouting round for relocating in north Oxfordshire and have seen quite a few houses that were on the market when we started looking back in March still unsold and dropping prices by 10+%.

mumblechum I followed your other thread. We are in a similar position but a price bracket below you. We've taken ours off the market for summer (too much hassle with the kids at home). I'd be wary about dropping the price too much on a "character" property unless you really want to move quickly - they're so hard to value and you are in danger of falling into what is a difficult price range, particularly if people think they can offer 10% below. From what I saw, your property has to be in the £1M+ range. FWIW a house down the road from us has just gone "under offer" at around £4M so there's movement out there.

Interesting to see how much the market has changed in only a few weeks. Houses were going for well above asking prices in May. I've now got 3 phone messages from the same agent asking whether I'm still in the market (have taken myself off the market as prices look like they are falling so I'm wary). They are sounding quite desperate!

Slightly off topic but has anyone done a Let to Buy, ie raised equity from their current home as a deposit and rented it out to pay the mortgage?

It may be a good Plan B, I think.

Yes, just in the process of doing Let To Buy. I have some other money to use towards the new place so getting a really good LTV on my London flat that's gone up in value by £100k in less than 4 years.

Hmm, interesting Msfreud. We have no mortgage on current house and a good chunk of shares/cash so are hoping we won't end up mortgaged up to the eyeballs, and would intend sticking this house back on the market in a year or two or whenever it picks up again.

Always good to have a plan B.

I was just called by Knight Frank in Newbury incidentally who said that they shifting under £1m but not over. I'm surprised the stamp duty rate makes that much of a difference in the scheme of things.

I am in Brighton It rocketed between November and April mainly due to the govt schemes i think. Prices are really high more than 2007. But many many sales falling through once affordability tests came in We lost our buyer that way. And ours was the fourth with our agent that week. Prices have stopped going up and are falling very slightly and you can make an offer again rather than outbidding. We got a new buyer in days but I dropped the price for cash buyer as mortgages are definitely getting tricky again. A house I liked before xmas was 325 now 295 and agent mailed me today they would take about 270 cash

Its a wreck btw needing full refurb but they usually fly