House Price Spy Blog

The media have been feasting on the projected cuts to be introduced in the next few years, you can hardly have turned on the TV without doom and gloom about what is going to happen to the country, but there is a much more serious influence for every household in the UK. Mortgage lending is down by 10%, and the finance industry has promised to make it much harder to get mortgages in the UK. The lessons of other countries (Germany to name one) and previous downturns have not been learnt it seems.

Rather than protecting the country from another 2007 style downturn by limiting the amount available for UK home owners, the lack of available finance is certain to see another drop in houses in the UK, rather than drawing in first time buyers and those priced out of the housing ladder the past shows that these are just the type of buyers who will be priced out of the market first, all the billions the previous government spent on first time buyers will be wasted and every home owner in the UK will see their investment suffer.

The market is set for a dip, the latest predictions are that there will be falls into 2011, if we artificially limit mortgage lending we will certainly cause a second panic.

The average property price in the UK fell for the third month in a row, with the number of properties entering the market (the word flooding has been used quite a bit) prices are being pushed downward as thousands of sellers test the market across the UK.

Buyers are reported to be described as ‘cautious’ viewing more properties than before and of course considering offering less than the list price.

One of the policy makers for the Bank of England, Andrew Sentance, stated that the BOE consider the current climate (Winter 2010) as being ‘volitile’ rather than a turndown in prices, and will not take pre-mature measures to stifle the slower than expected recovery by changing their low interest rate policy, the mortgage rate was held at 0.5% again last month.

In the news this week, 25% of buyers are late underbidding or ‘gazundering‘, buyers feeling justified in offering less now since prices have been falling in recent times. As mentioned the 21st century housing boom was partly based on the rental boom, many of whom are now selling up and these are the properties which are now flooding the market, apart from that many regular home owners are unable to wait until the next projected rise in prices in 2011. The average property price fell by around £6,000 in the UK last month and this trend is now expected to change before the end of 2010.

In the last couple of months mortgage lending has falled by over 10% and if FSA regulations come into force the number or mortgages numbers will decrease even further, sellers are adding all these conditions together and finding that the time is right to sell up if possible.

Keep in touch with what is going on in the UK property market, from national to regional down the street level with House Price Spy!!

UK property prices paused during September 2010, despite fears that government measures and the end of rental boom would impact on prices seem to be unfounded so far as averages over the whole UK hold in the last month. The only region of the UK which seems to be falling is Scotland where prices have tumbled by over 3.4% in the last 3 months.

The average 6.7% gains that the UK have seen during 2010, are not expected to increase but the increase in prices is slowing, the average house price in the UK is currently £167,423. The number or mortgages granted is falling 31,767 were granted last month which was down 10% on the previous month.

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