Posts Tagged ‘house price crash’

Houses in the UK are correctly priced

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

There has been much talk in the press and blogs in the last couple of years that houses in the UK are ‘overpriced’. Or that in some areas they are ‘overvalued’. Some even say that they are undervalued in the more exclusive areas such as parts of London. It’s as if they’re saying that there is some sort ‘correct price’ that they should be changing hands for. …read more

So you think house prices are on their way back up?

Monday, January 25th, 2010

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Average house prices rise

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

According to a report in The Daily Express the average house price has risen by £7,000 on the preceding 6 months. This equates to the price of a normal 3 bed semi-detached house rising from just under £153,000 to nearly £160,000.

This was welcomed by the property professionals as great news and as more evidence of a recovering housing market. They are saying that strong demand and weak supply has buoyed the market, which has lately brought more sellers in as they gain confidence from what they are seeing. …read more

No signs of stability in house prices

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

With news of increases  in house prices and an increase in mortgage approvals one might think the end of the bottom of the housing market has been reached. But are we looking at true stability? Or is this misleading data in a temporary flux that may pull buyers into a market with a long term downward trend? …read more

National Week of Action on Empty Homes

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

From Monday the 23rd November to Friday 27th November is the National Week of Action on Empty Homes. The Empty Homes Agency (EHA) has reported that one in twenty properties has been unoccupied for over 6 months. That means that the number of empty properties has hit a record on one million. At the point of last year’s week of action the figure stood at about 760,000.

The Empty Homes Agency “is an independent campaigning charity, which exists to highlight the waste of empty property in England and works with others to devise and promote sustainable solutions to bring empty property back into use.…read more

Commercial property losses hammer Nationwide

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Nationwide’s profits have halved as its commercial property business experiences hundreds of millions of pound worth of impairment. Low interest rates have also had an adverse impact.

Graham Beale, the Nationwide Chief Executive, paints a very gloomy picture for the immediate future of the UK property market saying there will continue to be a “very difficult trading environment” with a continued weakening housing market. …read more

First time buyers are not the only important people in the housing market

Monday, November 16th, 2009

A lot has been made in the recent past of the First Time Buyer (FTB) to the continuing health of the UK housing market. Access to mortgages and the deposit required by FTB takes up a lot of news columns and they are continually seen as the lifeblood of the residential market. Because of this we tend to ignore the other, equally as important, people involved. …read more

Economic Recovery and House Price Affordability

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

The press often gives the impression that our economy is irredeemable. However, it is important to realise that the world economy never stopped growing in the course of this recession and that the UK is very much part of a globalised economy. We live in a time where billions of people are chomping at the bit to join the high-consuming middle classes. Unlike in times gone by, these people now have the education and infrastructure to achieve their goal. The world, therefore, has the potential to grow at an explosive rate and there is every reason to believe that a Britain full of international banks and multi-national corporations will be able to join the party. …read more

OFT slams estate agents for dishonesty

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

An Office of Fair Trading draft report into the state of the property market has slammed the estate agency profession for dishonesty when presenting properties to the buying public. One of the most recent highly publicised cases was that of the agent selling a cottage neglecting to mention the nuclear reactors next door. …read more

Average selling price of Edinburgh houses rises

Monday, November 9th, 2009

According to the Edinburgh Solicitors’ Property Centre (ESPC), house prices in Edinburgh rose by 15.4% over the year to an average of £221,875. The EPC, which consists of over 230 member solicitor estate agents in East Central Scotland, puts this down to a higher proportion of larger houses being sold. 42% of October sales comprised of 3 and 4 bed-roomed houses compared to 36% last year. …read more

First time buyers flocking back to the housing market

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

How the Express get away with this I do not know. They’ve given up on Princess Diana stories but have wheeled out the property VI stuff again. But their whole article seems to be based on the ‘estimates’ of one estate agency (Winkworths) of 80 branches, which says that first time buyer activity has increased from 19% to 35%. But it does not state if these potential buyers are dreamers or really in a position to buy. …read more

Property millionaires take a pounding

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Zoopla , a property market website, has conducted a survey that indicates that the number of residential properties worth more than £1m has decreased from 1 in 97 before the crunch to about 1 in 150 today. Zoopla estimates this to mean that 35% fewer properties are worth more than £1m than before Nov 2007. …read more