Asking prices of Britain’s most expensive properties are still rising in a seven-month rally, according to Primelocation – but one estate agent specialising in the sector says that one in ten prime properties is having to have its price cut every month in order to attract any interest.
Savills says that the average price cut on high-end properties is 7.5%.
Savills’ latest report comes as Primelocation says that the UK property market has increasingly split into two segments, with the asking prices of high-value property rising as other asking prices sink.
Primelocation says that the average asking price for prime properties is now more than £250,000 above the UK average asking price.
The new Primelocation index reveals that asking prices of prime properties – the top quarter of the market by value – increased 0.5% in September to hit new heights.
The average asking price of a UK prime property is currently £472,340, boosting the overall asking price of all properties to £219,843.
Nigel Lewis, property analyst at Primelocation, said: “There’s no question about it – by every measure available, prime properties are consistently outperforming the general market.”
But Savills simultaneously warned of prime property owners trying to sell at inflated prices.
The firm warned of reduced buying activity and said that overpriced property has only been able to attract interest after a price reduction. Only prime properties in central London have gone up in value – year on year by 8.5% and by 1.1% in the last quarter.
Everywhere else, including in the rest of the South-East, values of prime properties have fallen, said Savills.
While the firm expects prime markets to outperform the mainstream market, it said that sellers must price realistically.
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Comments
@ Ray Evans
No, sorry you are right. No two houses are ever the same, the one you are in always has the biggest plot on the street.
And no-one cares what your opinions are either
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No Idea - yes you clearly have no Idea what are my opinions on house price are or my forecasts?
Quick HPC morons, Happy Slappy and crew, theres a new story on here that mentions "Price, off you go and make yourselves look daft on that blog now!
Every week when there is an article in EAT about house prices, it always attracts a great deal of emotional comment of the "I'm right - you're wrong" type, which is of course what they want..
Much of it comes from the University of the Bleeding Obvious. Calm down dears it's only words!
FBA - Hope you feel better soon as clearly that cold has dampened your senses.......you think i am a buyers agent hehe
Sniff.. Sniff... Sniff....
That smells of buying agent... lol.
Pass me a tissue to clear my nose
Peebee - "Simply charging more and refusing to drop is no guarantee of better service or superior negotiaton skills. It could just as easily be an indication of many things including delusion!" Agreed and exactly the point i was making.
My answer to your question is that decisions are made on value and budget. There are many parts in the equation including price of the property, fee structure etc. However if the service could be demonstarted as best in class, and the client was happy to pay and i could not find anything comparable for them at a better price..... i would say go with it. However, in my experience most are willing to negotiate in some way.
Steve Smith,
No qulaifications needed old boy, just a brain.
You get experience of the job with a corporate who will pay you eff-all and work you 6 days a week 8am to 9pm.
Once you have 3-4 years of this under your belt, you may, just may be able to get a propper job as an EA.
Your pay is commission, if you are crap at the job you get crap pay.
Good luck, I wish you will with your career.
Am thinking of becoming an estat agent, do i need any qaulifikasions?
Unhappy Chappy: "So an agent that charges a higher fee than you and will not drop is a better agent and a better negotiator than you, have i got that right?"
Anna will no doubt answer for herself.
If I may, allow me to offer MY two penn'orth.
Simply charging more and refusing to drop is no guarantee of better service or superior negotiaton skills. It could just as easily be an indication of many things including delusion!
HOWEVER... an Agent who GENUINELY provides excellent service; an Agent who CAN and WILL negotiate on behalf of his client to produce the best result that can be achieved in the market of the day - I am, as you know, of the opinion that they would be severely diluting any claim to be such by asking for 'x'% and 'negotiating down to 'y'%.
We all love a bargain. Sometimes, however, what you think you are saving at the till costs you far more in the long run. You will, I have little doubt, have found this to your cost in your working life at least once. I do not know of a single 'professional buyer' who, admit to it or not, has not made at least one purchase which came back and bit them on the behind.
With the above in mind, tell me, please: You are working for a client to select the right Agent, when your irresistible force meets the immovable object in the shape of, say, Anna & Co.
You try, try and try again to secure a fee discount for your client. You meet the same wall of refusal each time. The trouble is, you just KNOW that Anna & Co is THE Agent to handle your customer's property. They simply won't budge on Fee.
What do you do?
Congratulations, J Jones! You have done an amazing job of under-the-collar heat generation with your posts!
Time to 'come out', I think - before some of your respondents blow gaskets.... one way to rid of the competition, I suppose!
Thanks for the entertainment.! As Fun Boy Agent would say - you've made Fun Day Friday ;o)
Anna - So an agent that charges a higher fee than you and will not drop is a better agent and a better negotiator than you, have i got that right?
I agree with Anna, if an agent cann't negotiate their own fee, forget them. Cheap fees do not sell houses.
Jonnie, looks like you may have been wrong, he / she may be serious after all.
Bet they have cats. Lots of cats. Or dogs. Or just sh1te taste.
J Jones, you may as well take the property off the market because you do not stand a chance of selling any time soon. I can guarantee this.
You do not seem to realise that it is not you that determines what your property worth, it is your buyer. The reason there havn't been a lot of viewings is because your head is in the clouds and you want to much money. If it was at the right price you would have more viewings, end of.
Surely, you cannot be so nieve to think that you have been on the market with three agents (who you have already said sell properties in the area) with little interest and still think that you are on at the right price.
You are a delusional idiot.
J Jones- find an agent that can negotiaite perhaps? Ring round them all, ask them what their fees are, then get them to drop. The ones that do, cross of the lsit, the ones that have pride in their servcie and belief will not reduce.
These are the ones you want working for you, if they can't negotiate their own fee, how are they going to do on your house?
@PbroAgent
A house is NEVER identical to another. You would know that if you had been in the business for more than five minutes.
Addendum.
Actually J Jones, it looks like the fourth 'doesn't know the area' EA might have been on the nose.
They list your prop for £280,000 expecting an offer somewhere between 90% - 100% asking price.
Two prospective buyers come in at £250,000 just short of 10% off asking. Bish bash bosh.
Also bear in mind that £250k is the stamp duty cut-off (as i'm sure you know) so you won't get many offers in the £251k - £275k range.
Please excuse the double negative
@ J Jones (treating you at face value as apparently I've left my sense of humour at home this morning ;o)
It is you who are naive. At £1 you wouldn't have one or two offers you would literally get thousands. Clearly then you house is worth more than that and less than what you have it on the market for. Treat this hypothetical arguement like an imaginary auction if you will - keep going until the offers stop. There you will find the true value of your house. If nobody isn't going to offer you the asking price today, then it isn't worth that.
In a falling market you need to be ahead of the curve. Drop your asking price now else you may find that you will only need to reduce further in the future. This isn't hypothetical it is real world. I have vendors who didn't reduce their asking prices when recommended and are now finding that their offers are getting lower and lower.
That's great, you're in luck as i'd estimate we're back to around 2004 prices so you should at least get back what you paid for it.
Please do keep us updated.
Sibley, sorry but that is nonsense. I offer you £1 for your house, anyone else want to offer a £1... you going to sell your house for £1 now we seems to have found a price? Please don’t be so naive, a stupid couple of offers are just people who don’t deserve a house chancing their arm.
What I paid for the house is irrelevant, that was over ten years ago. And yes, I have done loads to the house in that time, it has been my home and it has been treated lovingly. I deserve what it is worth, I am not asking for a penny more.
J Jones, I really hope (as Johnnie suspects) that you're on a wind-up.
You say you've received two offers of £250k which kind of indicates you've found your market value.
Still, i'm sure the third EA will somehow manage to tap into a rich seam of cash-rich buyers that the other two somehow couldn't.
Given that prospective buyers will register with multiple agents you may find the same buyers coming in with the same offers.
By the way, how much did you buy it for, when, and have you made any improvements to it?
@ J Jones
Your case shows that you don't need an estate agent to SELL your property, you only need them to MARKET it for you.
You're probably a lot better at selling your own property than anybody else.
An EA can put your property in his shop window and list it on Rightmove, but from that point on they're just the middle men between seller and buyer.
Sibley * Child, Very easily indeed. When you walk around the area you either see their boards up or you don’t. I’ve really started noticing the board in the last six months, and this guy just don’t feature.
Oh Dear, I don’t mean to be patronising, but grow up. You don’t walk into Car dealership or a Cinema, and tell them what your prepared to pay, you find out what the price is and you pay it. Houses on my street are a good size, low crime, good schools, you don’t get that for nothing.
And these are the FACTS, I can go on zooplar and see that houses on my street sell regularly, year on year, its not just next door, I just used that as a example, but your mad if you don’t think houses have not sold before and since and will continue to do so. It’s a market. It’s you that has contradicted yourself.
If I had people tell me they love the house but want to pay a bit less, I am perfectly willing to do someone a bargain, and I have a little bit of slack in the price to do just that. But the agents (I am on my 3rd now) have only managed to show round 2 people, who both offered £250,000. That is not my fault they only found timewasters, not in a million years. Man up estate agents and admit that a lot of you are lazy buggers, maybe not those of you reading, but a lot are.
"Only one agent who clearly does not know the area said £280,000"
Interesting statement, could you substantiate that statement or are you just upset about the low evaluation?
Please let us know how much it eventually sells for.
PbroAgent, The house is on at £325,000, which is only £5,000 more than next door sold for years ago, I can hardly be accused of not wanting to sell, that is just plain ridiculous. When I got it valued 4 agents gave me a price in between £310,000-£330,000. Foxtons even said to try £340,000 for a while. Only one agent who clearly does not know the area said £280,000.
If next door sold for less, if four agents who are actually busy in the area all say the same thing, I hardly think I am being daft.
The problem is that the agents:
1) Do not show enough people around.
2) They cannot answer pretty simple questions about the property when they do, I end up having to take over. Ort they just start guessing/lying rather than say ‘I do not know, I will find out’
3) It took them forever to get simple things done like floorplans and photos. As a result my golden few first weeks on the market were wasted.
Who’s fault do you think this is. If me.....what planet are you on??
Mr J Jones, unfortunately, your house is only WORTH, what someone is prepared to pay for it.
If you can't sell your house, it means no one is prepared to pay the amount you are asking. Therefore, you have completely contradicted yourself. If you think it is worth more, fair enough but you won't sell because a buyer doesn't care how much you think your house is worth.
Good luck selling, you'll probably still be on the market in 12 months.
@PbroAgent
……..not sure mate / love, but I am pretty sure J Jones is taking the mick / doing satire or whatever you call it and is either a pretty savvy EA that like the rest of us has dealt with some daft vendors or possibly and HPC’er pulling your leg, not sure. But whatever they are its not serious, and being done for fun.
Jonnie
@ J Jones
So if your next door neighbour sold their identical house to yours in 2007 for £250k and you decide that you want the same, it's the agent's fault that the buyers will only offer you £210k is it?
Mr Agent, what exactly are people like me paying you for, if you cannot get what the house is WORTH.
If the house is not selling I can tell you it nothing to do with price and everything to do with the agent.
No sometimes dropping your house price is a necessary part of the process as Agent's always over value your home. Have you looked at the disparities between Asking Prices and Selling Prices in the UK? It's due to agents trying to 'out-do' the competition by giving a higher value than the property is actually worth in order to win an instruction. It's a BS process, but unfortunately it's the way it goes.
Plus an Agent will always say to you "Your property is worth (say £200,000), but we will start marketing it at (£220,000) in order to achieve around (£210,000)."
They know there is scope for negotiation when they start the deal it's the whole point of selling. If you're not prepared to drop the price or take anything less than the asking price you're going to be waiting around for a long while.
Me and me clan come to London next year to save you agent comrades. I'll pump £2 billion oil money into the London prop market.
Remember, Vladimir will come with the spring!
All the best comrades
Vladimir
My simple advice to sellers DO NOT DROP YOUR PRICE, you deserve to get what it was worth, not 10% off, or 20% off. But the full amount. If your house is not selling its time to change your agent, not give your house away. Most agents can be pretty lazy and never bother to get to know why your house is special. They will often come out with nonsense like ‘next door sold for X’ well next door has a 10+ year old Kitchen, a smaller garden and that was sold 3 years ago, hello inflation!