THE ESTATE agents’ windows are filling up with “Reduced in price” labels designed to entice eager buyers into parting with their money like shoppers at the summer sales. The market is definitely slowing down in my favour. But unlike a pair of bargain trainers snapped up on impulse, you may be stuck with your property for more than one season.

On average, the reductions in my price bracket are minimal, with drops of about £5,000 to £10,000. The big falls are mostly happening at the higher end unless, of course, you stumble across a desperate seller taking drastic measures.

One three-bedroom flat in Greenwich, which came on to the market in October for £320,000 and dropped to £280,000 just after Christmas, has now been reduced further to £270,000 — and the seller is still willing to listen to offers. That is a fall of at least £50,000 on the original asking price in less than six months, a colossal sum for anybody except Premiership footballers at the casino.

So why am I still complaining? The sun has been shining, the evenings are getting longer and house prices are falling. I should be full of the joys of spring. But I am afraid that I am still racked by indecision and troubled by one question in particular: Do properties that have been reduced in price represent good value or were they artificially priced in the first place?

Take that £320,000 flat, for example. I was keen to take a look until my girlfriend, Jo, told me that she had viewed it last time it came on the market only four years ago for just £105,000. I was put off instantly.

Has the price of property really trebled in such a short space of time — I know that my wages haven’t — or was the property unrealistically priced? Is it a bargain at the vastly reduced price of £270,000 or should it be valued even lower?

The saying goes that something is only worth what you are willing to pay for it but, after the rollercoaster housing market ride of the past 12 months, it is hard to know how much to pay for anything any more.

Each week I receive the estate agents’ property lists and it is amazing to see how many houses are still for sale months after coming on to the market. It seems that some sellers are still trying their luck in a climate when they should know better.

The reduced flats are the ones I am not interested in — either they are above a shop, on the lower ground floor, have no garden (or, even worse, a shared garden), or are situated on a busy road, that kind of thing. Even at their reduced prices they still seem extortionate. After all, the increases of the past year were so steep that it will take a lot more than a £5,000 or £10,000 reduction to make me feel as though I am snapping up a bargain.

The market is beginning to resemble a tense game of cards where everybody is holding their hands close to their chests waiting for the right time to make their move. Sellers are using small reductions in price to try to encourage buyers to commit, while buyers are holding back, hoping that they will be able to cash in their chips for a lot more at a later stage.

The trouble is that, in the game of property poker, first-time buyers are holding the equivalent of a pair of deuces. Homeowners know that changes in house prices are relative. If the price of your house falls, so does everybody else’s and vice versa. They can’t lose. But first-time buyers do not have that luxury, and because we have earned no equity in the past we are playing with our own money, which makes us even more cautious.

It is crucial that I show my hand at the right time: make a mistake now and I could be stuck in my first property or left in negative equity for years to come. With stakes that high, please forgive me if I keep my poker face on for a little longer yet.

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