Prices dropping in London?

[CherryFlan]

Interesting bit of research on London prices - this website has sold prices from an auction from 28 June, few weeks ago
https://auctionhouselondon.co.uk/auction/june-28-2023/

We're currently looking in south london, a couple of flats grabbed me on that list ...

This one in Lewisham went for £352k, seemed cheap to me. Checking land reg website that flat last went for £515k back in 9/6/16.

This one in Dulwich sold couple weeks ago at £290k. Last sold 11/3/16 for £415k.

Both of those down to two thirds of their 2016 prices. I haven't gone all through the auction prices, but picture does seem to suggest lower prices.

Seems dodgy to me probably money laundering.

I'd expect house prices to fall far harder in Lewisham in tough times than in Dulwich. Is it a rough area of Dulwich?

that Dulwich one does seem cheap. it is tenanted so not quite the same but still.

Dulwich has a rough part as well, so flats are cheaper there.

Those houses/flats on auction seems too good to be true. Maybe there are other things wrong with them that we can’t see . Eg something like Japanese knotweed can devalue a property but quite a lot. Properties on Rightmove and Zoopla suggest Dulwich and Lewisham are much higher

Maybe cladding issues? I know of someone who had to sell a flat dirt cheap in London for this reason a couple of years ago

Aren’t auction properties sometimes repossessions? If so then it may have been sold at a price that covers the debt but that’s it.

Agree but I wonder if Rightmove/Zoopla are currently giving optimistic asking prices of stuff which seems to be sitting unsold on the market - the auction gives an idea of what things are actually selling for at the moment.

I'm not sure that cladding problems can explain it - they happen on recently built highrise blocks, not brick built Victorian conversions like those two.

And I don't think it really matters at auction whether it's being sold by lender (or anyone else). If people want it they will bid the price up. Basically no one wanted to pay any more than they went for.

Auction houses are always a lot cheaper as its much riskier for the buyer. I would look on something like Zoopla or right move for more typical house prices.

Auction houses aren't representative of normal prices.

Far more realistic to look at Sold properties on Rightmove for the area you are interested in, albeit they are about 3 months out of date.

Auctions are a particular subset of the market.
Where I am looking in SE London about 40% of 'new' listings are price reductions, and there are also several SSTC coming back on the market, or properties marked as new that are a change of agent. It will be a while until you can see the sold prices impact though