House prices fell back 0.8% in November, following a 0.9% drop in October, Hometrack reports today.
This morning’s report also says that the number of new applicants has dropped by 4.3%.
The drop in buyer demand was the largest monthly fall since January 2009.
The survey of over 5,100 estate agents says that house prices have fallen in 54% of a total of 2,300 postcodes, and risen in just 0.1%.
Hometrack’s economist, Richard Donnell, said of the falling demand: “This mirrors similarly weak data on levels of mortgage lending announced earlier this month.” He added that it was “inevitable” that the weak demand would continue.
He went on: “Looking ahead, the real impetus to reduce supply is set to come from agents. Over the coming months, estate agents will be turning their attention to the supply of homes on their books, anxious to adjust stock levels to realistic prices more closely aligned to demand.
“The reality is that in the months ahead, vendors will either need to reduce prices or withdraw property from the market.”
He expected house prices to decline by 2% next year.
The Hometrack report has proved consistent with the Land Registry, although it is effectively published a month ahead of the latter.
The new Land Registry report, covering October, shows Hometrack was virtually spot on in reporting a 0.9% drop in October.
According to the Land Registry, house prices in fact fell 0.8% in October, to bring the average down to £165,505.
It was the largest monthly fall since February 2009 and means that annual house inflation now stands at 3.4%.
The only regions where prices rose (by 0.3%) were London and the East – up by 1%. The largest fall was in Yorkshire and the Humber, where prices tumbled 1.8% compared with September.
Sales volumes are not up to date, but the latest records, for the three months between May and August show there were 59,512 per month – slightly up from last year when the monthly average for the same period was 55,614.
More falls in house prices as buyer interest wanes
Latest Features
-
Industry Views - Airbnb Crackdown - this time it's not just Michael Gove...
It’s tempting to think that Michael Gove’s proposed clampdown on Airbnb-style...
-
The scandal of empty homes as councils stand to make additional £540m
Councils across England could make an additional £540m a year in...
-
Expert tips on how conveyancers can mitigate risk of negligence claims
The vast majority of negligence claims against conveyancers are for relatively...
Sponsored Content
-
%20-%20IMAGE%20Client%20Accounting%20%E2%80%93%20what%20are%20your%20options.jpg)
Client Accounting – what are your options? ...
The benefits for letting agents to outsource their client accounting is...
-
Why do agents outsource their calls ...
As estate agents, it is important to make sure that your...
-
How can agents capitalise on the green shoots of...
From the uptick in house sales in January to a house price...
-
Property Natter - An Englishman's home is his castle.....more or less!
Interesting report this week in Estate Agent Today on an analysis...
-
AML warning as hundreds of agents hit with HMRC fines
An anti-money laundering (AML) expert has queried why there is a...
-
MPs launch inquiry into home buying and selling process
MPs have launched an inquiry on improving the home buying and...
-
MPs launch inquiry into home buying and selling process
MPs have launched an inquiry on improving the home buying and...
-
Law Society faces backlash over material information forms
The Law Society is facing backlash from conveyancers after issuing new...
-
AML warning as hundreds of agents hit with HMRC fines
An anti-money laundering (AML) expert has queried why there is a...
60 second interview
Jake Gann, Sales Director at Bamboo Auction
Who are you and what does it say on...
Ashley Day - Director of Bristol Property Centre
Who are you, and what does it say on...
Graham Paterson ‘Co-founder and CEO of Jitty’
Who are you and what does it say on your...
Comments
You are on the wrong site Geoff. Please visit HPC , there are plenty of folk there who honestly think like that. The biggest hikes in prices I can remember (100%) between April 1987 and August 1987 happened when mortgage rates were 11%.
Interst rates have nothing at all to do with what is going on. It is FTB bad debt that prevents most of them getting mortgages. I can borrow £400,000 today at 2.6% fixed for 10 years. That buys me 3 starter homes in these parts which would rent out for £600/ month £503 after management fees and VAT. More than enough to cover the £699 arrangement fee and £900/ month interest.
Prices are only falling because the ones who can afford to buy simply can not be asked at the moment. The folk deserate to buy simply can not afford to buy. The arrangement fee for the same mortgae if I didn't have a 40% deposit goes up from £699 to £12,000!
If house prices are falling when interest rates are 0.5% the price falls are going to get even bigger when interest rates go up.
Its clear we have a housing bubble and prices are too high. Sellers need to get realistic about prices and drop them.
"The classics
The most popular threads from the main discussion forum. Moved here to preserve them for eternity."
Only problem is that the rightmove links posted in 2004 when they where prediciting the big crash are now longer valid. There's is a world where eternity is 3 months so one has to conclude they are a bit more advanced than a Goldfish (3 minute memory) but not as advanced as my cat.
I have just been on HPC website having never been on there before and it is hillarious. Never have I heard such a neagtive bunch of people before, good luck renting forever
Thank god I'll be dead by the time the whinging gimme gimme generation get to old age and realise that, not only have they lived their entire lives in rented accommodation but in old age they have no pension either.
Despite what the Labour Government taught that entire generation, life in a capitalist society life is a competition. There are winners and losers, not Winners and Whiners.
The average 18-30 year old blows about £100 a week on Beer, Fags, Taxis and the like.
The interest on a deposit of £40,000 is currently under £20/week.
Drink less, stick 20quid less in the Lap dancer's Thong and you too could buy your own home.
Terry Katona,
HASTA LA VISTA!
Cor, this could be like a film – sort of Terminator, you know, after the….not crash….erm, ‘house price mushroom cloud’ the indestructible robot army from HPC who clearly expect to survive and still have jobs once the house market has imploded and taken the banks with it as well as the country with it all appear from the devastation to rule the world – brilliant – get James Cameron on the phone!
Of course the public having lost 50% of the value of their houses will be keen to save another 2% and deal with you all directly – all the agents will be hiding in the bunker that is the rental market (most of us have one of these bunkers in our office) anyway so they can all be told that at 50% off its still not quite cheap enough, they’ll love that, you guys are a sellers dream who in their right mind would want to appoint someone to stand between them and you guys?
And then…………you’ll like this bit, once all the HPC lot have brought a house at the strict salary multiple criteria the cycle starts again and they all sit in their houses, looking out the window at the corpses of those vendors that finally relented and sold to them for ‘the correct price’ watching the values climb and climb and really hoping they wont go down – sort of a new generation.
Of course im an idiot as the market doesn’t go in cycles, never has done so maybe the film will flop
Jonnie
Yoel ave to splane wot a pencil is Peebee.
Grandad sez thems the fings b4 Palms
If us generation as to use paper lets' ave a decent Gotica Pen or sumfin.
Feckin goverment edjerkation cuts!
This is just a normal occurrence for the time of year. The amount is so little it is nothing to worry about, I expect it to fall further the next month or so before picking back up, as usual for this time of year.
Falling house prices will surely fuel the increase in Private Home selling as people look to slash selling costs.
Tom: "Why don't estate agents lower prices to 3.5 times salary?"
Okay Tom - lets get them all to do that shall we?
Only a few problems: Firstly; the Agents do not own the properties, so they cannot lower the prices without the owners' permissions.
Secondly; which prices? to 3.5x which salaries? The price of a modest two-up/two down to three-and-a-half times the wage of yer average burger flipper: or the price of a five-bed, five bath mansionette? Thing is, Tom, I'm sure you would vote unanimously for the latter - but remember, a property costs money to upkeep, and the bigger the property the bigger the upkeep, so maybe that ain't such a good idea after all...
But hey - lets do it anyway! Let's bring 'em ALL down to the same absurd figure. After all - this is your bonkers world so you can have it ALL your own way... Oh - hang on a wee sec - if all mansionettes are brought down to the same price as the aforementioned two up/two down's, then who will buy the smaller ones? No need - all property will be the same value, won't they, so why accept second best?
Only 99.9% of them won't sell... leading to an increase in the price of the larger ones as buyers fight to buy the few that come to the market. Leading to price wars; shortages; lenders offering 120% LTV deals to reap the benefits of a rising market...
Congratulations, Tom - you have just taken the property market BACK five thousand years, to the days when a cave was a cave, and right back to the last property boom - all in the space of minutes!
Well done. You can hand out the pencils tomorrow...
Tom look up the word Economics. If you don't understand read some more until you do.
My 4 bedroom house stands me in at £0 it is worth far more than that. Why would I sell it for anything less than it is worth to someone who can not afford it?
The only properties that are going to become available are those where the vendor is forced to sell through death, financial difficulty or a forced move. The rest of us will just sit tight. The few of you that can raise a deposit wil fight for the few forced sales, leaving a huge unsatisfied demand of purchasers. If you have even a spark of intelligence realise that you simply have to buy while you can before those with investment money decide they feel like buying again.
Trust me, if you miss out this time round that is your future sealed.
Its all well and good trying to create a public perception of a crash but the reality is that 90% of the owning public won't ever of heard of let alone care a flying fig about pooropressedus.com
House prices Still need to fall further to attract us buyers. Asking prices are just to high. Why don't estate agents lower prices to 3.5 times salary? How can we ever afford to buy even when we have the 25% deposit.
Lower prices = More sales & More EA commission
Mick,
Surely the point is obvious Mick if you haven't been on the booze too much.
The point is does it sit well with you?
I hope you manage your personal finances better than the way you did when you were managing the band.
George,
I get it now, is this where that berk that banged on about what a great bunk up his Mrs. was and how he had a chauffer came from last week…………….you don’t say.
Well im speechless – do you think some of them might come on here and cause trouble?
Jonnie
Surely you didn't miss the visit from the malcontent FTB's the other week Jonnie?
That is where they came from.
Basically its a bunch of folk who have been busy enjoying life with cheap "Blair,Brown" credit card debts, a wardrobe and several bin bags full of Crappy designer jeans that were made in the same sweat shop as the £4.99 value Jeans, and brains addled by Sambuca shots who have basically realised the party is over.
Its only called housepricedrop.com because the URL BuggerIvepissedmydeposit upthewall.com was taken.
The Green Manalishi,
But rates aren’t 5% they are 0.5% - so what’s your point?
Jonnie,
Do you honestly think that if the base rate was 5% now, the property prices would be as they are now?
The world has changed, it is not 2001, 02, 03, 04, 05, or 06, when everything in the world seemed rosy.
Believe me, the world is not rosy now and the prices in my area are still circa 2007.
Does that really sit well with everyone?
Oh my god,
Has anyone been over to House Price Crash? You have got to see it, I think its one of the finest sites on the web and I wish I had taken a look before.
It’s truly brilliant, there is thousands of people (much more than this site) absolutely whipping themselves bandy on the back of every bit of negative news there is about the house market.
Now it appears they haven’t got a prediction right yet but I think their persistence is admirable, they all hate estate agents and the last government and probably rightly so as none of them appear to have managed to get on the ladder and despite having very defined views on which way prices are going didn’t enjoy the same insight over the last 13 years as they went up……but no matter.
I had no idea people could pass so much time on one subject – some of the members have made literally thousands of posts and have funny little photos on their profiles, its like a political movement fighting for the lower house prices they deserve.
There is even a post from one chap who points out that you can judge the economic state of an area by how much petrol people put in their cars at a time, near him someone did £8.00 so im guessing that’s a bad thing, im not sure but utter genius, Check out ‘HPC Veteran’ for more………………..there’s also a guy called ‘doomwatch’ sounds like a mate of Optimus Prime but he’s good, really good, he puts articles from various web sites up for discussion and gets as many as 5 one line responses.
This could be people power at its best, if they manage to shout house prices down (general opinion / hope seems to be about ½) then I reckon enough of us could get Wagner back into X factor……………..and the funny little bird who’s Nan is a hooker.
Jonnie
What clever dimwit thought this one up? House prices do fall in late November and December because the idiots in the corporate companies press their inexperienced staff into reducing prices in the vain hopes it will make sales. All us experienced agents know that this happens and it’s the same in August.
We need to kick the amateurs out of this game so that we professionals can do it without the popular press telling us the B obvious about prices dropping.
It’s a shame the exciting bit of this got blurred out by the headline, that being the 7% rise in transactions which is the key issue for EA’s. If revenues follow house prices then the sector was 0.8% down on fees but 7% up on sale volumes and that more that cancel’s out the price drop.
House prices seem to bounce around like tennis balls these days.
Essentially, they will not crash as long as large building companies are not building in big numbers - buyers who need to move will continue to do so - those that want to move probably will stay put unless they can get their heads around being sensible with the asking price.
There are not many new instructions at the moment so agents are over-valuing to win jobs, but in truth, the supply of buyers is even less so why they think over-pricing will do them any good, god alone knows.........
HI Busybee...what area are you in? You must be in an area which represents good value for money to be doing so well. An average 2 bed flat is £235K and an average 3 bed semi for us is around the £350K mark. I am sure you are aware how hard it is to fund such purchases..hence so few sales being done our end
Well said Agencyinsider. Liz, at the end of the day even if a buyer is prepared to pay an above market price for a property the lender will only undervalue and refuse to lend unless the price is reduced. This market is false in so far as high prices are only as a direct result of low stock due to Vendors being unable to increase their mortgages thereby allowing them to move up to bigger/better properties so they stay put and dont bring their homes to the market place. Ho hum...its nearly Christmas.
Liz - You can rightly blame some agents for over-valuing but the usual consequence is that the property then fails to sell until the price is reduced to a level where a purchaser will bid and a vendor will accept (or not). It is a fallacy to blame estate agents for the 'high price of property'.
Estate Agents are to blame for the high prices of property. Some quote high valuations just to get the instructions. It has nothing to do with doing the best for the client.
November has certainly not been as bad as the media would have us believe. I am also interested that a 0.9% drop in prices seems to be portrayed more dramatically than a 7% increase in sales volume! As usual vendors got ahead of themselves with an improving market and factored unrealistic price inflation that is now creating tricky trading conditions. As agents we must not let vendors dictate pricing. Leave it to the experts!
Then I choose to make myself King of All Estate Agents - BOW DOWN BEFORE YOUR RULER ! !
(on a serious note, we've had a very good November, too, but it has come from getting good price reductions. Prices are falling, and need to fall further in the current market.)
We have had a VERY good sales month in November, i really hate reading these pundits statements. An agent is what He or She makes themselves.