Blanchard Consultancy – the independent construction consultant

Property bargains are increasing daily as sellers cut their asking prices in an attempt to make wary buyers commit in a slow summer market – but the mortgage drought and a loss of confidence among buyers means that few are taking advantage.

Sellers are asking £5,403 less for their homes than a month ago, with the typical price of a house down, on average, by 2.3 per cent at £229,816, according to a survey on Rightmove, the property search website.

In London, where the market has deteriorated sharply, asking prices have dropped by £21,096, or 5.3 per cent, to an average £379,162 in a month. Prices are down 3.8 per cent in the capital over the past year, compared with 4.8 per cent across the UK.

Despite such reductions, properties appear to be more difficult to sell, with Rightmove-registered agents reporting 78 unsold properties on their books, up from 77 last month. Miles Shipside, a director of Rightmove, said: “Buyers are currently benefiting from the best choice in years.”

Rightmove blames the mortgage drought for the state of the market, adding that transactions are in danger of dropping to levels last seen in 1959.

Despite fears that there could be a surge of properties put on the market as the slumping economy and soaring prices forced more borrowers into difficulties with their mortgages and pushed asking prices even lower, Rightmove says that there is no sign yet of a rush of homes for sale. New listings are 106,000, about 25 per cent lower than typically seen at this time of year. Mr Shipside said: “Those who do not have to sell are holding off.”

Read the full article at Times Online.

Labels: falling house prices, findaproperty, House market, property analysis, property prices, Rightmove, uk housing

THE trade body that represents hard-pressed estate agents is to create its own free advertising website, a move that threatens to torpedo the business plans of its quoted rival Rightmove.

The National Association of Estate Agents, which represents residential estate agents, is planning to launch Property Live in October and is being supported by its 10,000 members.

The new website could prove devastating to sites such as Rightmove and Findaproperty.com, which charge a monthly subscription of up to £495 to advertise houses and flats on their property portals.

Any further upgrades, such as displaying extra photos, can cost an additional £100 per property.

Article continues at Times Online

Labels: findaproperty, free house advertising, free propoerty listings, House market, National association of estate agents, property live, property prices, Rightmove

Homeowners have started to drop their asking prices as the reality of the downturn in the housing market hits home, a report out today shows.

The property website Rightmove said the average house price fell 1.2% to £239,564 in June, from £242,500 in May, and further reductions would be required to sell homes where there was an oversupply. It suggested what buyers could afford would continue to deteriorate because of rising living costs and higher mortgage rates due to the credit crunch.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: "For most sellers that will mean whatever they thought of asking for their property at the peak of the boom, they need to take at least 10% off. Otherwise their property will stagnate.

"In spite of the lowest housing transactions for 30 years, new sellers had been coming to the market asking record prices. It was a mad state of affairs that defied the laws of economics. Thankfully, new sellers are now taking some proactive steps to price more realistically from the outset to attract increasingly hard-pressed buyers."

The biggest drop in house prices was in the south-east, where they dropped 2.4% to £303,828 in June. In the south-west they decreased 2.2% to an average £258,696. Prices fell 1.6% to £225,565 in East Anglia and 1.4% to £399,010 in Greater London.

Although asking prices rose in the north, the West Midlands and Wales, these areas have seen some of the steepest price falls in previous months, with average asking prices 3% lower in the West Midlands than they were a year ago, and 2.6% lower in Wales.

The lack of buyers is widely blamed on tighter mortgage lending conditions.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders said that lending almost halved during the first quarter of 2008, resulting in 142,300 mortgages.

Halifax, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, announced last week that it would raise its fixed rates on loans by half a percentage point - the 20th time it has changed its rates since the start of the year.

Homeowners who have more than 25% equity in their houses face an increase on a two-year fixed-rate mortgage from 6.49% to 6.99%. On a £150,000 home loan, this adds £47 a month to repayments.

The increase follows similar moves from several rivals in the past week, including First Direct, which raised what had been the cheapest fixed rate on the market.

The number of properties for sale in the UK now outweighs the number of buyers by over six to one. There are 25% more properties on the market than six months ago, which means that 1 million sellers are competing for just 150,000 buyers.

Average unsold stock per agency branch rose to a record 75 homes, up from 73 the previous month.

Rightmove used the asking prices of up to 200,000 properties for its figures.

Read more at Guardian Money

Labels: House market, House prices survey, property prices, Residential property, Rightmove