Prices soar in sunny Southend? News to us, says agent

Here are the results of some of the surveys you may have missed over the long festive break.

Southend was the UK’s top house price performer last year.

Who says? Why, no less than the Halifax.

So when the BBC sent a news team to check it out, it was good to see agent Alan Kirkman of Tudor Estates, Southend, giving his expert opinion.

The only problem is that Kirkman did not believe a word of it and said as much to the BBC crew, which slightly dented the story.

According to the Halifax, house prices in Southend rose 14.8% last year from £172,782 to £198,418.

Kirkman told EAT: “The market is good, but not that good.”

The same Halifax story named Basingstoke as the second-best UK house price performer, with a 14.7% gain. We suspect this may similarly have surprised agents there too.

Meanwhile, the Halifax economists were busy on other fronts (couldn’t someone give them Christmas off next time?).

First, they said that the number of first-time buyers shot up to its highest level since 2007, to 216,000.

However, this was not entirely good news, since the increase means there were roughly half the number of first-time buyers as in 2006 (402,800).

This followed the Halifax survey of the best places to live in Britain which prompted a report in the Daily Mail which began helpfully: “An obscure corner of the Hampshire countryside has been name the best place to live in Britain for the second year in a row.”

EAT, which has its rural office in this obscure location ruled by Hart District Council (within easy reach of London and within earshot of the M3 and railway line from, guess where – Basingstoke – to Waterloo) never knows whether to laugh or cry at this poll-topping result. But surely it must damage the Halifax brand that places up north don’t ever seem to score highly in its survey, unless of course the Halifax has secret plans to relocate to Basingstoke and rename itself.

Then, while the Halifax pollsters were having forty winks, Lloyds decided to search out the most expensive places in Britain and, quelle surprise, came up – not with Southend or even Basingstoke – but with Kensington and Chelsea (EAT has condensed this press release down by about one-billionth).

Meanwhile, PrimeLocation came up with a survey of its own which suggests that houses near golf courses are worth more than those that aren’t (fancy!).

Yesterday, the Halifax economists were at it yet again. They said that house price confidence has risen across all regions of the UK.

Apparently, nearly four in ten consumers (out of the 2,000 whose views were sought) expect house prices to rise this year, and only a fifth expect them to fall.

Hmm. The same survey also finds that only 13% think this year will be a good time to sell, while over half (53%) think it will be a good time to buy.

We are not quite sure how this will translate into activity for estate agents – but EAT wishes you a slightly belated happy new year anyway.

Our own new year resolution is to try and ignore such surveys.