House Price Spy Blog

House Price Spy has been around for quite a while now providing everyone with millions of property prices from England, Wales and Scotland since 2000. This data is purchased from official government sources such as The Land Registry, Registers Of Scotland and The Royal Mail and are regulated and updated on a monthly basis to ensure all data is correct and complete.

Other organisations are charging up to £2 for each sale price, so you are saving cash on each search.

When you are looking for data please bear in mind that it takes up to 2 months for sales to appear and even then it can take longer for certain sales depending on factors such as legal papers being signed and exchanged etc. If you dont see a particular sale then there may be a reason for this. Also bear in mind that we reproduce the information we are given and have no control over errors and ommisions made at government department level. We do get a significant number of emails from members of the public wanting to change or omit details. All this data is Public Domain information available to anyone, and we are entitled by our license with ROS, Data Protection, Land Registry and the Royal Mail to reproduce it as we please, once you register the sale of your home this data comes under Public Domain rules like the register of births and deaths and the Companies House database.

You are free to get in touch with us via our contact form, we value your feedback, especially as a fairly new company striving to improve and give customers what they want while developing new services and hopefully new websites using the House Price Spy brand in the future.

We have recently started sending our regular emails with updates on chosen areas and will be switching over to our brand new site layout in the next couple of weeks with easier navigation and more focused structure.

We have only been running this site for just over 2 years and we have already seen a lot of changes and improvements, with plenty of plans for new statistical and service based goodies which will raise us further above the pack!! Dont waste your money on paying for FREE house price details or waste your time with awkward sites carrying errors or limited results, free house prices at House Price Spy!

The main property related story in the news this morning was the giant rise in utility price from one of the UK’s largest providers British Gas who are raising their prices by 25% for gas and 9% for electric.

With many other companies sure to follow, you will want to get the best value deal for your families utility bills, there are a few ways to ensure you are not wasting your precious cash on un-competitive suppliers.

Energy Helpline are a free website who promise to save you up to £365 per year on your bills (based on an average family home), with no forms to fill in and no-one will visit your property. Just fill in a short online form with simple details such as your address, usage estimates and a few other information and Energy Helpline will do the rest. Its great knowing you are getting the best deal and we could all do with less paperwork

Start saving on your energy bills today with Energy Helpline!

See your other energy options at House Price Spy Energy

With property prices down and wages down the rising prices for energy, food etc seem even more extreme .

The financial news this week is not too good, US lender IndyMac has gone bust and Washington Mutual is on the brink of bankrupcy. The US property market is down 20% on peak values from 2007, while the UK market is down by an average of around 9%.

Some financial institutions are aiming at a turn round date of 2012 or 2013, when we can expect growth in property prices.

On the bright side the mere fact that we are living linger and gettijg divorced more means that there will always be demand for new property, this will be no solace for sellers who have lost out in recent months but means the current slump can only last for so long.

House Price Spy means you get all the property details you want before you spend any cash, the data goies back to 2001 and is all official government data served up with statistics, advice and links to great property related websites.

The global property market has also been effected by downturn that we have seen in the UK, these stme from a lack of finance, consumer confidence and the poor £ against the Euro etc. Here are a few examples of the markets:

Spain - there has been a massive overbuild of primary and holiday homes and this has led to prices falling rapidly with many builders out of pocket.

Eastern Europe - Prices are still relatively strong due to the low price of land and cheap cost of living.

China - Prices were 15% up in 2007 due to the Olympic games but have fallen back somewhat. Expect London property prices to see a similar rise nearer 2012.

Turkey - The market has slowed down, but is still seen as a strong market.

Northern Ireland- NI was one of the major success stories of 2006 and 2007 and has now seen the sharpest fall outside London dropping by a huge 20% in the last year.

If anyone has experience of buying or building abroad please comment and let us know

The One Account has been around for a while now, you probably know all about their revolutionary idea- of offsetting your mortgage with your savings and letting you save and pay off your mortgage earlier.

Choose the savings, current accounts and any other accounts you want to offset with and start to save!

With mortgage lenders going into hybernation of late it would be nice to take the pressure of your finances just a little, there are offset mortgages for all situations including first time buyer, self employed and no proof of earnings.

The amount you can save depend on what you have saved and how much your earn (ie what is in your current account) but every little bit counts!

Cut your mortgage payments AND pay it off sooner with The One Account.

With property prices falling by around 6% in recent months more people than ever will be facing the spectre of negative equity ie paying more for their mortgage repayments than the property is worth on the open market.

This is especially for people who took out 100% and large value mortgages during an inflated property market and bought outside the usual hot areas. New build flats and houses are not looking such as great investment in the light of recent developments as these are the first lose value and can even ‘depreciate’ after the initial burst of interest in new property developments.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) have recently stated that over 23,000 borrowers now face negative equity by 6% to 10%, this is a 15 year high.

Just for the record the average cost of a home in England in April 2008 was £226,194, in Wales it was £164,994, in Scotland £165,546, and in Northern Ireland the average value was £224,664.

England is around 5% down, scotland is slightly down and NI is holding steady after recent rises causing a boom in the market.

When the lenders and government sort out the credit crisis this will all change, the cost of an average mortgage is up almost 7% with many of the attractive packages enjoyed in recent years.

With the present conditions in the UK property market set to continue for some time (3-4 years) estate agents and property sellers are struggling to find new novel ways to make money.

The ratio of sellers to buyers in the UK is currently nearly 15:1 leaving many estate agents in a perilous situation and many people hanging onto property in the medium term.

Following on from the last blog about ’sell to buy’ I see there is now a trend for ‘try before you buy’ where sellers rent out their property for a few months and if the buyer likes they can buy after. Buyers would sign up for a few month lease with an option to by after that time.

Other new build homes are even being offered for a few nights at a time (exclusively to the over 55s) with an option to buy after that.

House Price Spy is the best way to find out about an area before you visit it, pricing trends, nearby areas and loads of stats on the area-all provided FREE of charge. All you will be asked to do is join the site, by giving your email (so we can update you on activity in areas selcted by you) and postcode (so we can tailor details to suit you) to gain access to millions of sales in England, Scotland and Wales!!!! Northen Ireland and Ireland do not have this system at the present time, we will add this when we can!!

It seems like every day the papers, TV and web has doom and gloom about the property market and the UK economy and this week is no different: the average price of a home is down by 2% in June 2008 alone

The UK Government has a new scheme to lure more people into stepping on the property ladder called the MyChoiceHomeBuy Scheme. The first area to test this scheme is Lincoln, it means a property buyer can get an equity loan of between 15% and 50% which can be paid back monthly or all in one go if they choose to sell up. This will be available through selected agents in England intially. This scheme also means you can get £1,500 towards your moving costs and it also means you get 100% mortgages through selected lenders such as the Halifax.

The MyChoiceHomeBuy Scheme will be open to first time buyers AND other buyers, there are 1,000 properties up for grabs in the UK however priority will be given to keyworkers and members of the armed forces.

This will obviously have a knock on effect on the building trade, but how much impact will 1,000 home make when over 100,000 are required to reverse the trend of first time buyers being priced out of buying property?

If these schemes will be a success or just be a drop in the ocean will remain to be seen, some properties in the Uk have fallen by £20,000 already so will this mean that first time buyers can afford them? Probably not. First time buyers are not keen to be tied down to a long term mortgage, as they are ususally young and will have to move for work etc so they will still lose out.

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The choice and service cannot be beaten, Sky Digitial are the UKs largest provider and are pioneers of Sky Plus which has revolutionised the way we watch TV! Add in free installation, connection and equipment such as router and set top boxes and you have a great deal!!

Read more about the deals on offer and get Sky Digitial in your own home visit House Price Spy!!!

With UK propety prices falling between 2.5% and 3.3% during the last year (and 1% during June 2008) the trend for ’sell to rent’ properties looks to be on the increase.

‘Sell to rent’ involves selling your property, rent another property while prices fall, and finally buy another property while prices are at their lowest ebb. Abbey say that 827,000 borrowers planed this route in the near future.

The only problem with this scheme is that with mortgage lenders not giving the number of mortgages out the number of suitable rented properties will be down, therefore the prices for rented accomodation will rise meaning you pay more for the same rented property. And of course at the end of the day you are still paying someone else mortgage!

Another problem with sell to buy is how long will this period last? and When can I buy again without losing out? Property experts consider 3-4 years to be the expected duration however I believe this is too much.

There is no magic way out of the present downturn, apart from staying put. While you should never pay more for a property than its market value, a house is an investment in the future rather than money in the bank. So selling, expecting further falls, is a short term measure!