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Peter Hendry
Peter Hendry
Author of House Price Virtuoso Solution
6416  Profile Views

About Me

I trained in and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in the 70's, taking the valuation and estate management option.
My initial work involved property valuation and estate management including commercial property.

I have pioneered and since perfected new methods to improve the way in which houses are bought and sold across the nation having conducted research into the current failures frequently occurring during the agency process.

These failures, cost both the house buying public and the agents servicing their clients' property requirements a great deal of lost time and money through the inefficiencies which are currently being allowed to exist within all local housing markets throughout the country.

My proposals may be read at: www.improvethehousingmarket.co.uk

It is time that all the shortcomings described are addressed and dealt with to bring forward a new and efficient way to transact house sales and purchases initially across England and Wales but across the whole of Britain as well.

my expertise in the industry

I joined the property industry in 1969, trained and qualified in 1974 and have worked within its sectors ever since.
Though I've now retired, I continue to advance my theories regarding how to improve the nation's housing market in particular, based on my extensive working experience over a number of decades.

Peter's Recent Activity

Peter Hendry
The complaint voiced here isn't a fallacy, it is a reality because agents are working for and paid by the seller. Unfortunately, prices are now completely out of reach of the many who work near where they need to live because the richest simply outbid them! As Michael Day suggests the selling agent aims to maximise the price of the property being sold. This is less on account of wanting a larger fee as a percentage of the price paid. It is instead because all the agents is are acting for the seller and not the buyer. This is where and indeed why the market situation is going completely haywire! To Rob D, "a property is worth what someone is willing to pay for it" only holds true if the buyers are aware of the methods used to bolster selling prices. As most buyers are blissfully unaware of what goes on behind closed doors, many agreed prices are not true market prices based on supply equalling demand in any way. Martin Levine can see the housing markets are in a state of meltdown and selling agents can do nothing to address the main reasons because it is the selling agents themselves whom are the source of the difficulty here. Proper agent does make a very good point, I am glad to say! To Trevor Cooper, yes agents do want sales but if they were able to act with more business acumen they would increase their sales turnover severalfold and that's where my analysis of the problem comes in. Just Google: The House Price Solution and you will see the complete explanation of how to correct this massive housing market breakdown. I applaud Lauren Atkins of The Malins Group for being bold enough to tell selling agents the errors of their ways right here! The best page explaining how to resolve all the selling agent criticism is: Property Valuations in today’s Housing Market

From: Peter Hendry 30 August 2022 16:38 PM

Peter Hendry
Lloyds Bank cannot resolve the housing crisis alone, however good their intentions. The correct way to resolve the crisis in the British housing markets is being blocked by the iceberg of political thinking in Westminster. It’s no good just helping some people, by making larger loans to them! Doing that would be utilising the vulnerability which allows house prices to rise and the illusion of good times for all, when in actual fact houses are simply becoming less and less affordable by the majority. The government is doing itself no favours by pursuing such a policy at a time when many people, especially the younger generations, hope for the prospect of having sufficient accommodation at price levels which are affordable and in sufficient quantity to satisfy their increasing level of demand. The political will, not to enable this, appears to be like a giant iceberg floating in the path of those wishing and needing to make something of their lives. A path other than being tethered to ever increasing financial commitment that saps away the very creativity they are being born to bring fruit to all of our lives. If those in Parliament cannot see this happening through the fog of their own deliberations then everyone will suffer, including the politicians entrusted with bringing us a brighter future rather than a much bleaker one. The correct way to resolve the crisis in the British housing markets is to lower the cost of housing whilst increasing its supply in an orderly and environmentally considered way. For the exact way this might be achieved please see the corrections set out in The Hendry Solution, which is fully accessible online. Comments are welcomed there.

From: Peter Hendry 02 September 2021 11:29 AM

Peter Hendry
It's good to know that the government (despite all the other issues it has to contend with at present), is looking at ways to improve the way housing markets function across England and Wales. I would like to describe the long overdue need for this as ‘dragging the housing market into the 21st Century'. The article here quotes the author of the research, Ruban Selvanayagam as saying, “It’s evident that the English and Welsh conveyancing process could learn some key lessons from Scotland.” Well, possibly but not necessarily. EPCs, single survey reports and property log books are indeed some of the new tools which could feasibly be used for getting sales flowing once again but I say much more should be considered. Having let others have their say on this first, I’m having mine now by advocating a complete overhaul of the way in which houses are initially searched for, viewed and sold as well as let. For full details of this root and branch change you may simply Google The Hendry Solution. It may sound a wee bit Scots but actually what I’m proposing is nothing like their system!! I’d be interested in constructive comments on the website referred to, from those who may be less than happy with the current way that agents go about making sales and lettings. Change for the better is now overdue but it also has to be serious change, not just a small tinkering exercise. I’ve been putting forward my proposals for a while, having worked across the whole property sector spanning my 30+ years working within it. I would like to think those steeped in the workings of the estate agency industry especially ought to be able to come up with some innovative and workable suggestions too.

From: Peter Hendry 20 May 2019 20:15 PM

Peter Hendry
I read your interesting post just now and am pleased to comment. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid says: “Buying a home is one of the biggest and most important purchases someone will make in their life. But, for far too long buyers and sellers have been trapped in a stressful system full of delays and uncertainty. We’re going to put the consumers back in the driving seat. We will require estate agents to hold a qualification so that people are no longer at risk from a minority of ‘rogue agents’ and can trust the process when buying or selling their home.” My response is: Simply requiring those carrying out estate agency work to be suitably professionally qualified won’t resolve the dilemma of the broken housing markets all around the country with prices stretching further and further beyond people’s reasonable ability to afford them. The only way this could be achieved would be to improve the way each local market itself operated, by making all of them more efficient. The necessary way to do this is to remove the incentive for agents to hype up all the prices by making them work for the buyer (or renter) rather than for the seller as at present. There needs to be a more fundamental and wide-ranging concept for dealing with this significant problem. Simply trying to get more houses built isn't the whole answer either. The only practical and thought through solution is being championed by a retired Charterd Surveyor, (myself) primarily. People working within the estates sector are simply too reluctant to propose or to accept the necessary changes. The method by which this substantial improvement could be made is fully explained on my blog pages but does require some study. Please Google The Hendry Solution for this. I would welcome reasoned discussion about this and I may be contacted via the blog site initially of course. Peter Hendry

From: Peter Hendry 13 April 2018 09:04 AM

Peter Hendry
A new Housing Policy for UK Plc which really would have traction? A housing policy removed from politics? Yes please! In case you’ve missed it the untried, uncharted but fully thought out measures needed have already been devised and tabled for full consideration. These are to reform of the way houses are bought and sold, so that purchasers have access to much better information about the value of their intended investments or purchases, at the time they are negotiating them. To achieve this a root and branch reform of estate agency’s marketing methods would be necessary. This is long overdue in any case. The effect of this would be to stop big banks, finance houses and rich individuals (including developers themselves) making large profits from property sales. The way to achieve this is to set up a new network of agencies that negotiate on behalf of buyers instead of on behalf of sellers as happens at present. It is now clear that before any other strategy is considered, this change needs to be implemented without delay. Not doing this would further exacerbate the problems we face in all housing markets across the country whether buying or renting. Doing this would massively improve the efficiency of the housing market and restore confidence both amongst those aspiring to own their own homes and to rent them. Houses would, once again, become reasonably affordable and the cost of building them less expensive than at present. The policies I am advocating could be put into effect easily, swiftly and inexpensively. For more information about exactly how this ingeniously crafted new policy could be put in hand, please Google to see ‘The Hendry Solution’: How to Improve the Housing Market in England and Wales.

From: Peter Hendry 04 January 2018 08:26 AM

Peter Hendry

From: Peter Hendry 11 April 2017 22:52 PM

Peter Hendry
Simon Shinerock, I think your question asking "who came up with it" deserves a reply. You can see all about me on my blog pages. I am someone, with sufficient in-depth experience of the problems that have beset the British housing market and which are clearly continuing to do so. The successful person needs to come up with a plan that can take the market, and those whom work within the market, forward in a positive and constructive manner. It is something that is much needed currently. Until somebody actually devises a plan that can overcome the problems which the housing market has now encountered, nothing much will improve. One of the main issues needing re-tuning in the British housing market is exactly 'how' should prices be arrived at within this market, when it contains houses with unique characteristics and buyers with similarly plentiful unique requirements. My answer, in a nutshell, is that house prices should primarily be set and determined by buyer demand. To give a parallel example and since today is Grand National day, ask yourself how bookmakers odds are arrived at, for each of the different racehorses, having unique strengths and characteristics? Market prices there are certainly not set by the owners. Instead these are determined by the bookmakers, judging the level of demand being shown during the run up to the day of the race and the actual likelihood of the horse in question (or a house for that matter), winning or being sold. These prices are adjusted as may be required, by the bookmakers working competitively but also knowledgeably and in concert with each other. This parallel is advanced simply to show the need for new and better methods when it comes to the selling of each unique house needing to be traded on the housing market. It is only loosely similar because as you will see from reading The Hendry Solution, prices wouldn't be calculated in the same way as bookmakers do in horse racing. Houses and horses are very different types of animal of course! I hope you find my new and intricate proposals for improving the housing market, interesting.

From: Peter Hendry 08 April 2017 04:59 AM

Peter Hendry

From: Peter Hendry 01 December 2016 13:05 PM

Peter Hendry

From: Peter Hendry 03 November 2015 11:43 AM

Peter Hendry
"The lack of properties coming on to the market is making the process of buying a home more competitive, which is in turn pushing up prices beyond the level of inflation and limiting the amount of choice for those looking to buy." This argument needs more careful examination. Think about it! If sellers think that they should scoop whatever prices they can obtain from the most wealthy amongst us, just because they can, the effect will be that fewer buyers will be able to compete in the market, thus limiting the opportunity to sell. It's a self-defeating strategy. The knock-on effect of this will be fewer houses coming onto the market, as is currently being seen. The result must be a lack of availability of houses and flats for sale in the market generally. Sellers will themselves be unable to find alternative homes to afford and will therefore soon decide against trying to sell. Buyers will simply be unable to afford to buy in the majority of cases so will stop looking also. The housing market's economics will be adversely affected and in addition the slowdown in the number of sales completing will have a knock-on affect on the whole of the rest of the U.K. economy. A different strategy is urgently required. For a better prospect for the whole UK housing market, as part of the nation's economy, please Google: The Hendry Solution. This explains exactly how to overcome this real and growing threat to stability in the housing market, whilst more housing is constructed to satisfy the currently increasing need for it. It's not too late to start implementing these proposed changes in order to restore the UK housing market back to good health.

From: Peter Hendry 29 October 2015 09:30 AM

Peter Hendry
Our volatile housing market is a potential powder keg, waiting to explode or, conversely it could implode without warning. Cheap and sizeable loans are driving both of these possibilities. Not having provided fixed interest 'lifetime' mortgages making these readily available and possibly even mandatory has exacerbated the problem, one which the US has cleverly managed to avoid. The circus in the UK housing market is not simply about inadequate total supply levels or a shortage in the overall numbers of new dwellings being built. The main problem is there's currently a worrying slowdown in the number of completed sales, which are primarily dependent upon prices, or to be more specific, there're dependent upon asking prices. There needs to be a way of adjusting these so that 'sales throughput' roughly equates to current affordable need/demand, which is linked to the average ability to actually pay the prices currently being sought, without recourse to excessively onerous loans or mortgage contracts. Estate agents are in the perfect position to reconcile these forces as they act for sellers but they could, in fact, feasibly change and act for buyers instead. If they were to change 'horses' in this way they could have a huge and beneficial impact on the number of sales or purchase completions, helping to keep the throughput of completions relatively constant and in line with current demand and supply. For more about precisely how such a massive improvement could actually be achieved, please google Property Match UK.

From: Peter Hendry 29 September 2015 06:38 AM

Peter Hendry
HOW To Get The Housing Market Operating Fairly Again: Sadly, it's not just about a problem with money laundering that's causing the majority of the UK housing market sales turnover to stagnate. The rate of turnover in the housing market is crippled by its own marketing methods and not by an insufficient potential supply of properties available to sell - or indeed by a lack of people wanting to move house. This is causing severe financial pain in the agency sector, though few practices appear prepared to admit this. The market needs to be improved so that it can start operating fairly in order to encourage the house-owning public to feel comfortable about moving more often. Until this happens, both buyers and sellers will continue to shrink away from starting to transact any more than the minimum numbers of sales, the only exceptions necessarily being primarily the three Ds – debt, divorce and death. Specifically, families or the people forming them would clearly prefer to move house more often than around every 20 years on average - as is happening currently! This stark statistic, (source: http://www.propertychecklists.co.uk/articles/no-one-wants-to-move-home-anymore) in itself, clearly shows that there is now a serious problem. In my opinion it has resulted in the market continuing to 'stagnate', in terms of there being a lack of sufficient properties going on sale - at prices that are reflective of people's ability to actually afford them. Money laundering is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to inefficiencies in the services currently operating the housing market itself. If marketing methods for houses going up for sale were successfully improved, more properties would start going on sale and more activity in the marketplace would start to ensue. I can only place the blame for this failure firmly at the door of estate agency and the methods employed by those in it. What needs to be done is to have a wholesale review of house marketing processes, and for appropriate change to happen swiftly, once the relevant improvements are decided upon. If the NAEA and/or RICS cannot proactively achieve this then, again in my view, government needs to intervene to initiate the necessary market upgrades a reasonable time-scale. This market is a very important sector within the whole economy and as such it warrants government scrutiny. For more information about what I believe needs to be done, as well as the how, the why, and the when, please refer back to the article which was published on the Property Match Blog some while before the last general election. http://www.property-match.co.uk/blog/2013/12/05/estate-agents/want-functional-stable-housing-market/ This has been recently updated and gives considered details for resolving both supply and price inefficiencies identified within the UK housing market currently. If anyone has a question about an aspect of these proposals they are welcome to communicate this with a view to discussing it with me in a timely and measured way of course. I'm afraid cannot enter into short-fire stoic and opinionated debates concerning such important matters on this site. A more calm and measured approach would be needed to deal with this on-going, intransigent problem needing an appropriate solution for the whole UK housing market. Any interested parties may contact me on the Property Match blog on this.

From: Peter Hendry 24 August 2015 12:12 PM

Peter Hendry
Forecasting 'doom' in the UK housing market, though potentially useful, does not actually solve anything. I cite the recent research by PwC into house price levels. To resolve the accelerating crises would require significant work on the infrastructure of the housing market itself. For example take our nation's road system. If we want to move increasingly large numbers of cars efficiently around it appropriate road improvements are a fundamental requirement. The same goes for our housing market. If we want to be able to market and transact sales of increasingly large numbers of houses (to cater for our ever growing core population), improvements in the efficiency of the UK housing market itself are desperately needed and long overdue. Full concentration on the planning and executing of these improvements is absolutely essential to this. Thinking we can leave it to the market itself to sort out these problems is simply taking the 'road' to failure !! The politicians and their advisors keep kicking these problems back into the long grass instead of trying to deal with them head-on but I have to ask and keep asking, why? To read information on the only way to achieve due success in dealing with the current housing market problems and helping countless numbers of households to live a better life in the process, refer to the previously published (but little known or commented upon) "Hendry Solution". Earlier article published on this blog site. This gives full details of our set proposals for resolving the price inefficiencies within the UK housing market.

From: Peter Hendry 23 July 2015 08:59 AM

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