Anyone noticed the market has changed?

[yaxe]

We are in the process of buying (have sold) & it was mad in March, lots of overbidding etc. I've noticed now reductions & stuff is staying on rather than going in a wk. It's making me a bit nervous tbh.

Hope so, maybe we'll finally be able to buy a house.

In the parts of Manchester I’ve been looking at prices still seem to be going up and anything nice is selling in days still.

In my area there are lots of price reductions on houses. The top end of the market (not London) seems to have ground to a halt.

To make a direct comparison between 2022 and 2021, I noticed a nice looking period property came onto RM a couple of months ago. It was also on the market a year or more ago and sold immediately (most things did in Spring/ Summer 21). It is now back on at the same price but hasn't sold still.

@Nw22 where are you looking in Manchester?

@Newhousecrying south Manchester

@Nw22 we recently bought our house in south Manchester, Trafford borough. We started looking last year and prices definitely went up between our first looking and when we offered on this one.

it looked like things were slowing down based on the Rightmove listings when I looked last month. I had to stop looking because it was too upsetting for me to see houses cheaper and better quality than the one we bought.

It’s really interesting to hear your experience. Thanks.

@Newhousecrying we are focusing on chorlton and Didsbury. I don’t think things are going over asking price now but they are still selling

I just noticed lots of places are reduced near me now. There's much more on the market (there was next to nothing four months ago) and that's because houses are sitting there with no takers (I presume), or else people are trying to offload while they can. Quite a few houses at auction now.

FWIW I'm in an area which has seen a lot of increases but where prices really fall when there's a crash.

Housing stock in the UK is limited. House prices will always be on an upward trajectory. There might be a slow down because of affordability- higher interest rates. There aren’t distressed sales flooding the market yet. Those sellers getting less for their homes are also buyers paying less.

A recession will lead to distress sales but we are not there yet.

demand can only be satisfied with credit. supply of credit is what drives house prices, not supply of houses

Sellers - well, some of them - have become greedy around here. Overpriced properties that appeared on Rightmove in May/June are still knocking about, there are lots of them, over a dozen.

Meanwhile the sensibly-priced ones that were marketed at the same time are well on their way to completion.

Same here I think. I've seen some quite reasonable (relatively speaking) asking prices on houses I'd have expected to go for more. Those have sold quickly. There are others hanging around or reducing that were probably ambitious from the outset.

That makes no sense. The physical stock of houses are limited and options for increasing that stock is also very limited. That economic fundamental will drive prices up long term.

Any slow down is always temporary.

Financial flows will always depend on the physical flows/fundamentals.

But one can only afford what the bank will lend.

Definitely depends on area. In my local area stuff is still shifting fairly quickly because demand outstrips supply. However, I have a friend trying to sell his flat in London and he's having trouble. People are worried about the fuel cap and heating prices come the winter I think...

I've noticed that houses are hanging around longer. Standard 3 bed terrace in my area was impossible to get a viewing on 6 months ago. You actually had to phone the EA the second it hit Rightmove to even get a viewing with no flex on time or date. Now you can take your time and have many options of viewing time and date. Also, not going to best and final within days of viewings. Vendors may get a couple of offers, not 10.

The demand has reduced substantially and EAs must be able to see this. Although they are still telling buyers that the market is buoyant.

I'm not saying that demand has collapsed but definitely subsided substantially.

It will be interesting to see what happens when supply increases in September and interest rates go up again. I think we could start to see price drops then too.

Where I am things have slowed massively and every week properties are being reduced and still not shifting. I think most markets are heading for a slump and a 5-20% reduction by 2024 depending on where they are, what they’re like etc.

The fact that most people are on holidays probably is quite a lot to do with it

Definitely depends on area. In my local area stuff is still shifting fairly quickly because demand outstrips supply

Same here. No evidence at all of price falls. I looked through Rightmove last night as DS bought a house a couple of months ago. Prices the same or maybe a bit higher.

l live in a city that was one of the top places that people moved to when Covid let people work from home. In fact l think it was the top one. Anyway, not seeing any price drops apart from on very busy main roads.

Trafford, Manchester. Good catchment area for schools. 3 bed end terrace. Needed a bit of updating but not massive. These houses usually sell like hot cakes. This house was marketed for 400k in early July, reduced to 375 by end of July. Just sold with marketed price of 350k - no idea if that was the actual selling price, that's just the last asking price on RM.

In April, it probably would have gone to best and final within days. It took 7 weeks to sell.

Like I said, there are still buyers but less of them and they aren't competing at best and final anymore.

£350,000 is still £75,000 more than 2018 prices for that area

I know but my point is that demand has subsided substantially over the last 6 months. Buyers are no longer outbidding each other and having to bid over asking price, so prices are stabilising under current conditions.