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Few buyers came into sight this Easter - but the market is not equally
depressed in all regions. Asking prices are up everywhere except the West
Midlands and East Anglia, according to Rightmove. Is that seller
over-confidence or are there signs of life in the property market? Experts
around the UK give their views:
“We had a white Easter in Kent, but the office was no less busy than any other
Saturday. People are still viewing and still making offers, though we do
expect buyers to negotiate harder and look around the market for longer. You
have to be slightly clever if you want to move. Sellers have to be
absolutely competitive with their guide price, and if there are any physical
problems with the property, they need to fix them. Expect to see heavy
discounting of those homes that are too close to a road or a pylon. Buyers
are advised to spend some time looking around the market, and then make
themselves a nuisance getting a good deal.”
Simon Backhouse, Strutt & Parker, Canterbury
“It was not that busy over the weekend - but it didn't help that it was
snowing and absolutely freezing. But we are getting a lot of interest from
first-time buyers, many of them from Brighton but unable to afford to buy
there, or from Surrey or London. At £150,000 for a two-bed seafront flat,
the prices are peanuts. It's attracting people, including developers and
buy-to-let investors, because it is an oasis of affordability in the South
East.”
Alex Atabey, Bairstow Eves, St Leonards-on-Sea
“It's been extremely slow in Lancaster this year. There is an abundance of
apartments, a third of the housing stock, owned by investors who want to
offload. They are lying empty. Prices are really falling. There is a lot of
negative equity. Nothing is selling. We'll end up giving them away, just to
get rid of them.”
Helen Rains, area manager for the Halifax estate agency, Lancaster
“In the Glasgow and Edinburgh commuter belts - places like Cumbernauld and
Dunfermline - there's a problem with oversupply of new-build developments.
Prices on these new estates have slowed; developers are offering lots of
incentives to buyers, especially now that petrol, fuel and food prices are
beginning to bite.”
Faisal Choudhry, head of Scottish research, Savills
“The volume of viewings is up on this time last year, but it's taking double
the number to generate an offer. However, buyers feel they have more time so
are a bit more flexible.”
Stuart Flint, partner, Knight Frank, Birmingham
“Last Easter we were in the middle of a rising market; this is very much a
holding market. There was a begrudging sense this Easter of ‘let's get on
with it'. First-time buyers are starting to come back, because they are
seeing opportunities. No one is predicting a collapse in prices, and they
are wondering if this is a good as it will get. There is a lot of interest
from families looking to get children into certain schools this September.
The prices of those family homes don't move, except to go up, and because
they are buying for the long term, buyers feel more confident.”
Jeremy Leaf, Jeremy Leaf and Co, Finchley, North London
“Prior to Easter it wasn't as quiet as expected as people who had been looking
for many weeks were now coming back and making offers. There is still a
shortage for good- quality family homes in streets such as Lansdowne and
Elgin Crescent, where they are experiencing a micro-market of their own and
performing amazingly well, achieving anything over £2,300 per sq ft, whereas
this time last year it was anything in the region of £1,800 to £2,000 per sq
ft. People are definitely taking their time in making their decision, but if
properties are sensibly priced they will sell.”
Teresa Kane, Cluttons, Holland Park, London
“Overall there is a shortage of period and waterfront properties which are
still the most popular properties that sell in our area. Buyers are quite
nervous and Easter has not changed this. We need to encourage buyers to make
reasonable offers and get sellers to look at the choices they have. There
are still people looking to buy second homes and rent them out as holiday
homes and there is still strong demand for more expensive homes. If your
property is unique it will sell quickly.”
Edward Parker, Stratton Creber, Cornwall
“Prices remain beyond first-time buyers and many sellers are moving into
renting rather than buying again. This is hampering the building of chains.
Interestingly, a few investors are returning to the market, feeling that now
is a good time to get a deal.”
Andrew Goundry, chairman of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA),
Cornwall
“It appears the sub-£250,000 market in the popular residential areas has some
life in it. There is a huge oversupply of flats, particularly in the bay and
marina developments around South Wales, and in the city centres. This is
leading to major problems as the owners become increasingly desperate to
find buyers or tenants. This is leading to sellers and landlords either
selling at low prices, or letting to less desirable tenants.”
Michael Jones, NAEA chairman, South Wales
“There is a lot of anecdotal evidence to back up our survey that shows that
rents have been picking up sharply - we estimate about 5 to 10 per cent in a
year. If first-time buyers are not buying, then they are most likely
renting. Buy-to-let investors can no longer expect great capital gains, but
they can take comfort in the cash flow. It's now harder to get into
buy-to-let, because of the difficulty in securing the finance needed, but if
you are already in, it is not a bad time to stick with it.”
Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
“There is concern about the new apartments market in provincial cities, with
reports of double-digit price falls in some areas. In Leeds and Manchester,
we expect some projects to be mothballed, leaving the better-quality schemes
to be developed. In some cities, such as Edinburgh and Cardiff, developments
that are cut off fom the city centre proper are suffering. We expect
new-build properties in London to hold up best, but there are areas with
significant amounts of development in East London that will struggle to
maintain the growth rate.”
Guy Weston, senior associate, King Sturge residential research
“We still have a long way to go before we see the difficulties of the late
Eighties. [But] we are aware that there are vast regional differences, with
areas such as Central London and a few other major cities continuing to keep
up a regular pace while some other areas may be patchier and even extremely
slow.”
Stewart Lilly, NAEA president
“Sellers are still braving it, but when the market is perceived as being
softer, people tend to look at prices. So motivated sellers have cut their
prices. We have also seen the odd repossession come on to the market. The
introduction of the drop in the capital gains tax rate on April 6 could show
how the property market will go this year - we already have a few sales
holding off from completion until after this date. It will be interesting to
see if investors will show confidence in the market or choose to sell up and
cash in on their investment.”
Carl Davenport, sales manager Chestertons, Tower Bridge, London
“Sales of top-end properties picked up during February for the first time
since the autumn and we expect sales volumes to continue to increase, though
house prices look likely to remain stable. Overpriced properties look set to
remain on the market with limited interest.”
Napoleon Wilcox, NAEA chairman, Somerset
“If sellers were to price more realistically at the same time as lenders were
able to normalise lending criteria, we could see a speedier harmonisation of
seller expectations and buyer affordability. Until then, there will be a lot
of sellers who can't sell and a lot of buyers who can't buy, and everyone
sitting on their hands. Many sellers coming to the market are trying to bank
the equity they have made from their home during the boom of the last two
years. Marketing your home at these prices is ignoring the City financial
jitters, increased competition from other unsold properties and the
challenge buyers face in getting a mortgage.”
Miles Shipside, commercial director, Rightmove
