House Price Spy Blog

The current financial slump is not the first to hit the UK and it wont be the last, the last one was in the 1990′s and was partly caused by a similar situation in US savings and loans and the UK entry into closer financial union with Europe.

Inflation jumped to 15% for a short time, the Pound was devalued and the resulting furore saw the Conservative party (led by previous Chancellor John Major) losing the next election by a landslide. The parallels are there, ex rock solid Chancellor gets power (eventually) and instantly becomes a figure of fun, economy takes a nosedive with records being broken right, left and centre. Ex Chancellor is voted out by a landslide…

The only difference is that John Major as PM made a decision to enter the EU, where as Gordon Brown made all his errors while Chancellor

Other countries have resolved problems like this in the past, for example Sweden in the 1990s, so we need to get a permanant solution with strict legislation in place to regulate lenders and the financial industry.

You dont have to enter the property market to enjoy the benefits of Free House price at House Price Spy, anyone with an interest in property, the local economy or just wanting a property related bargain such as insurance, DIY and entertainment can benfit from our free service!

Having a look at House Price Spy for the last year its clear that certain areas of the UK have faired better than others, Wales appears to have been hit hardest with average prices down £10,000 and sales standing at just 700 for a whole year! Englands total sales have fallen from almost 100,000 to just 17,000! Scotland appears to have been the most hardy market with prices unchanged and sales down less than the rest of the mainland.

England – Average price – Sep 07 £230,000 – Aug 08 £224,000

England – Number of sales – Sep 07 93,000 – Aug 08 17,000

Scotland – Average price – Sep 07 £162,000 – Aug 08 £163,000

Scotland – Number of sales – Sep 07 12,00 – Aug 08 4,000

Wales – Average price – £164,000 – Aug 08 £153,000

Wales – Number of sales – 4,000 – Aug 08 700

How long will it take for prices to start to reach the levels they were at during mid 2007? property Insiders are saying it should be 2 to 3 years, but this will depend on what Gordon Brown (or whoever is in charge in 2009) does.

You can’t help but have noticed that the housing market had taken the kind of turn that usually has Ambulance sirens wailing. While many people are still braving the new economic climate by selling and buying property there are many other sound reasons why you can benefit from the free information and analysis on offer at House Price Spy.

House Price Spy can help if:

You need a valuation for insurance or financial reasons

You want to find out what someone you know really paid for their house

You want to keep tabs on which towns or areas which are ‘up and coming’ to rent in or move to at a later date

You are re-mortgaging and want a better deal

You want to lower your utility bills

You want home improvement tips

You want to contact a property related ombudsman

You want to contact a government department but don’t have the website or phone number

You want to get information from a government department

You are interested in the market and want to keep with the latest developments in legislation and government

The UK property market is not dead, despite the recent press overkill. Its time to tighten the belt and get on with your life! Why pay for property information, when it is freely available on House Price Spy!

The Interest rates for UK mortgages has been cut by 0.5% to 4.5%. This should be a good thing for getting people to enter the property market, this comes in addition to £500 billion plans to bail out UK finance. What will the UK tax payer get for their money? will they get a real stake in firms (whose shareholders have been coining it in for years). Or will this just be another ‘loan’? These measures will cost everyone in the UK between £1,000 and £2,000.

The stumbling block in the US bail out plan was that these institutions are private companies and should be treated as such, the US Senate has now agreed the proposed package to back up US finannce.

Neither Brown or Bush will wanted the financial ‘ship’ to go down on their watch. Both men seem to be on their way out, the US elections are just around the corner-Bush having served his maximum 2 terms. Brown is not expected to win the next election, the only question being who will be in charge of the two main parties. Has David Cameron actually got what it takes to win even against the hapless Brown regime? Will Labour be brave enough to stick with Brown. With the re-appearance of Peter Mandelson that is not looking likely….a deparate measure surely. Brown and Mandelson have never been friends so that was a strange one!

With Christmas coming up on the horizon, this is usually a record time of year for shops with billions being spent in the next 2 months. Is consumer confidence strong enough to see heavy activity which could bolster the economy?

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The big news of the last day or so was the collapse of one of the previously ‘safe’ financial institutions in the UK, Bradford and Bingley who have been part bought over by the UK government and partly by the Santander Group of Spain who also bought over The Abbey Group. I personally have savings with them but as mentioned £35,000 of your savings will be guaranteed by the Government. All banks and buildings have a brand which they propigate of safe investment and old grannies depositing their giro every week for decades, but what are actually up to? After Bradford and Bingley, Northern Rock and HBOS who will be next to feel the crunch?

With the fall in the housing market there are many casualties (ie apart from you and me) estate agents are one. With some branches selling only one property a week times are dire. Many are reporting having 50% more properties still up for sale, and profits dramatically down on only 1 year.

Are we pricing our properties too high? While you are more likely to sell by lower the price, the time for a ‘firesale’ has not come. Estate Agents will get a percentage of the sale price usually 1%-2%, which means you dont have to set yourself a time limit. There will be more and more sellers happy to ‘sit’ on a property. Could it be time for estate agents to consider a new way of charging sellers? They could consider charging a flat fee of £750 to £1000 rather than a percentage, which this would cost them it would get more work from clients.

From the boom when over 100,000 properties were sold per month, estate agents are just one group who need to look at themselves more honestly. The average time taken to sell is up from 6 weeks to 14 weeks across the UK.

The changes in Stamp Duty have made no difference, but hopefully wont cost the UK taxpayer too dearly. ‘Single reports’ are another reason to hang on rather than sell up!

You can get an exellent valuation for your property by using House Price Spy, you can get data from the last 8 years with stats to compare to other areas and streets. You can save any results and look at graphs which compare results. We will even email you with new sales and statistics for areas.

Price you property right, and dont undersell it-it has not suddenly become worthless in the space of 6 months! Look at similiar house in similiar areas and what people have been paying rather thanw hat next door payed. This all depends on what your position is and whether you are compelled to move and what your plans for the future are.

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While US financial giant The Lehmann Brothers recent colapse wont mean much to many of us the dramatic bailing out and ‘closing down’ sale of HBOS (Halifax Bank Of Scotland) to Lloyds TSB will have raised a few eyebrows across the finanacial world. it was only a few short years ago that Bank Of Scotland were THE big beast in UK finance with ordinary savers and investors complaining about the sky high profits that were being made, and also about how ethical the money invested in BOS was.

A few years down the line and upward of 40,000 HBOS employees are facing Christmas on the dole, and the government has had to bend monopoly rules to accomodate the amalgamation which allows HBOS to avoid going bust. HBOS/Lloyds TSB will have a huge 33% of the UK lending market.

50% of the value of HBOS stocks were wiped in the space of one day and this raises questions about the stability of UK finance. Questions about Gordon Brown’s role in the ‘borrowing culture’ that existed during his chancellorship have arisen, how could a previously ‘prudent’ financier inspire so little confidence?

After The Northern Rock and US problems the UK government has set a trend of forcing lenders to change their ways and become more realistic, what this will do for competition in the marketplace where lending is down to a 20 year low and many lenders have withdrawn previous loans.

While supporting financial institutions is all very well for the overall picture how does this affect the consumer in real terms? The whole mess has been caused by mismanagement by lenders rather governments charging too much stamp duty, or even borrowers paying too much for property. The government should use it’s time coming up with a medium term legislation for lenders in terms of what they can offer, to whom and rules about inter-lender finance.

It should be noted in all this that £35,000 of your savings are guaranteed, so if you spread your savings across a few lenders and types of investment there will be no problem. Gordon Brown was telling us a few months ago to save more for our old age…with many pensions halfing in value in recent days this is looking like folly!

The property market has been the main topic of discussion in the media and it does now appear the both the UK and US governments are concerned enough to put serious money into working through the slump in prices. Since my last blog, the US government has invested billions in two ailing financial institutions while Gordon Brown has pledged billions to raising the lowest level of Stamp Duty and bailing out struggling borrowers who mortgaged in more bouyant times.

With speculation over the future of the PM in terms of his leadership and the upcoming election this could be the last gamble Gordon Brown has to offer. The ‘Tony and Gordon’ package profited massively from the inflated property market in the last 10 years, and now are counting the cost of the inevitable re-adjustment in prices to a viable level.

The backdown on 10% income tax was fairly embarrassing, but this seems to be the one thing which could tip the balance away from New Labour with less than promising poll predictions and by-election results.

Hopefully we will see a bit more leadership in the months to come, with a plan which they stick to! There have been two or three backdowns in recent months (Northern Rock, 10% income tax etc) which never looks good. Are the government expecting people to run out and sell their houses for thousands less just to save an average £550 on Stamp Duty, sounds like a hollow promise-at least we wont have to find billions to fund it if no-one takes it up!

When you claim your free membership of House Price Spy you get access to millions of sold house price since 2000 in England, Scotland and Wales. Apart from that there are various other ways to gain from free membership…

House Price Spy members benefits are as follows:

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