What's the property market doing in your area

[GnomeDePlume]

Small town in Northamptonshire.

I keep a weather eye on the property market in my area. What I am currently seeing are a lot of 'got to' sales: estate settling and former rental properties.

The terraced houses for sale include a number of ex-rental properties. 5% used to be considered an okay yield. Now that isnt covering the mortgage. For the first time I am starting to see these houses coming up as auction lots.

At the top end of the market I am seeing a lot of sales falling through and houses coming back on the market.

Anyone else a property watcher and have a view on the market in their area?

Rent is red hot as always - SW London zone 3 in a area of three/four bed terraces very good primaries. Due to the high value though rent yield isn't much above 3% though (house values well above £1m), unless you bought a few years ago. But I think that's true in many parts of London.
Sales? Steady I'd say. It's a popular area and as I say the schools are a big draw and it's walking distance to tube/train. I think there's diminishing chances to improve though - the vast majority of houses have been extended up and back and more than two kids it would feel a squeeze (the fourth 'bedroom' in my house is less than 6ft wide). The bigger houses are another £500k.

There isn't a good stock of terraces here (small market town) so I haven't noticed an increase in ex-rental properties coming onto the market.

It's the same with the higher end ones falling through though, some 3 or 4 times. Others have been in the market since last spring. Previously they would be the type of home that got snapped up pretty quickly.

My town is old industrial. Lots of terraces, minimal extending beyond turning what was once an outside privy into a ground floor bathroom.

Different ages of housing developments reflecting the good, the bad and the ugly of each era.

£170k will buy you a 2/3 bed terrace. £600k will buy you a modern 4 bed detached and leave change for you to update kitchen and bathrooms.

Huge reductions on hard to sell and middle range properties. Cheap and reasonably good ones selling fast. South East England. I took a 12 per cent drop on selling a four bedroom house three months ago.

A lot of the overpriced property is not being sold here on the south coast. I have also noted higher numbers of empty ex rentals sticking. However good houses at keen prices still go quickly. More stock available, over all, than I have seen for a while.

My test is this.

Look on RM.
Set "Added to site" to 14 days.
Set filter to include Under Offer and SSTC.
Set filter to exclude Buying Schemes and Retirement Properties.

In my Devon market town, 23 properties have been added or reduced, and only 1 marked Under Offer (and that one had been reduced multiple times over the last 6mo).

It's the wrong time of year to use this as a base for what's going on generally, but try again at the end of Feb to see how healthy or poorly your local market is.

I've just done @XVGN's test on Rightmove.
Results are:
< 3% sold. Of these, one is marketed at same price it sold for in 2021 so likely under offer for less
Two 'luxury flats' but actually lower end price.
Two reduced properties now under offer.

From my observations in the last few months, a lot less stock coming on from around mid October, a lot of higher end properties were removed from the market before Christmas. Now, quite a lot of recent reductions and a few properties re-appearing after Christmas. I expect to see quite a few of the removed properties coming back on market in the next couple of years, maybe even in the Spring.

From conversations with friends in other areas:
Home valued > 10% less Summer 23 compared to Summer 22 and likely to be worth less now (Home Counties, v easy commute to London)

Second friend in Belgravia- values apparently falling very fast in Central London, especially flats.

Things may well be better in parts of the North and Scotland but I haven't talked about HP with friends up there- will report if I do.

I should have added that around 50% of the listings with 14 days were reduced properties.

That’s my take also, twice as many reductions as new listings. Some of the new listings being non-movers from last year.

Also just tried out @XVGN test
4 properties, 3 are lodge/caravan things that I know were on months ago. 1 is a 2 bed flat that looks like it's not been touched since it was built in the 60s. Has also been for sale since at least summer.

So there are only 4 properties in your area and none have sold? Is your area really tiny?

NE Scotland.

Back in the summer houses were selling almost as soon as they came on the market - most sold within 2 weeks.
Now it seems to have stagnated as they're not selling and even reducing the prices. A nice 2 bedroom beside me has had no interest in 4 months whereas the almost identical house sold in 10 days last summer.

Ok so I've done the test.

16 have been added in the last 14 days of which 2 have been sold

Of those 16 though, 10 are properties that have been previously listed and have been reduced in the last 2 weeks, including the 2 that were sold.

For my area:

23 new listing
28 reduced

the above includes 3 under offer or sold STC

My area of SE London: dead dead dead.

1 new added in last 14 days, which isn’t new at all, it has been on from summer and is a reduction. Not under offer.

17 on there if all filters are turned off, of which 11 are under offer. They have all been under offer since September. The other 6 which aren’t under offer have all been on the market since October, with several reductions and no takers.

Oxford outskirts. If it is sensibly priced, it is selling quickly. Over- extended houses , hopeful executors, hopeful ‘downsizers’ houses are sticking for ages : the latter two will sell once ( as soon as) they lower their expectations. The seriously over extended which rejoice in five or more bedrooms, bathrooms in every cupboard, vast glass boxes stuck on the back containing a kitchen / family room which shrieks ‘huge heating bill’ are probably stuck until the next boom.

North London. Completely dead, supposingly, agent should be at work preparing listing for keen sellers that held back last year but so far nothing on rightmove.

Of the 14 day added homes in my area (40 as of this morning) 10 are being sold empty so are what I would categorise as 'got to' sales: probate, ex rental etc