House prices have fallen across the whole country in the last year apart from London, latest figures from the Land Registry show.
The average property value of a home in England and Wales in June was £161,479 – down 2.5% on last year, although unchanged from May.
Only London experienced growth in the last 12 months, with an average property price of £339,480 – an increase by 0.8%. However, house prices in the capital dropped by 0.1% from May to June.
The North-East was the worst-hit region over the last year with a 7.1% fall to £101,440. In the North-West, property prices were down by 5.2% and in Wales by 4.4%.
The volume of house sales fell in the months January to April - the latest figures – dropping from a monthly average of 45,509 for the same period last year to 42,733 this year. In April itself, there were 48,704 house sales, a fall of 7% on the 52,272 in April last year.
David Newnes, director of LSL, owners of Your Move and Reeds Rains, said: “Flat house prices show how much the lack of mortgage lending is holding back the property market.”
He said that outside London and the South-East, the market is close to rock bottom.
This morning's Nationwide index did not disagree too much with the Land Registry. It said house prices in July were 0.4% down on last year, but up 0.2% since June, to stand at £168,731.
But Nationwide expressed concern about sluggish demand, with only 204,000 housing transactions in the second quarter of this year. It posed the question as to whether a fundamental change was occurring, with a trend away from home ownership.
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Comments
Anna: I know you are keen to get your own back on me following my unwarranted rantlet last week - you have succeeded.
I am also Confuseddotcom with your last offering... ;o)
Qulaity as expected.! Search for a property in Lincs, Northants , or Cambs and it returns property in Kent area. £25 a month seems expensive! Peanuts and monkeys and pay, have already been mentioned I think?
FBA - Haha....If i get them to depart the market what commission will you give me :0)
For the record my personal circumstance is irrelevent but as it happens i am in the fortunate position of not needing to buy at the moment, its just the way i see it.
The market is on the verge of collapse in Swansea - loads of people putting in full or near full asking price offers but who appear to have no financial sense.
They then get shocked when the banks will not lend anywhere near the sums they have offered or they then put their own houses on the market, assuming they will sell quickly, and they do not get a single viewing.
There is a really odd sense of denial or stand-off going on and I would not buy now as I think a collapse in prices is just months away. I can't recall seeing so many houses for sale with, at the same time, so few buyers even looking.
Let's hope you are right Unhappy!
Then the Corporates might all shut up shop and go away thus leaving real estate agents to run their local concerns providing a great service to those who can afford to buy.
I sympathise with you if you can't afford Unhappy. But it seems to me from where I sit that plenty can. Business is steady, not boom, not bust.
Cheers mate, I really hope you are right.
Send an e-mail to Simon Embley, Paul Smith & Co for us Unhappy, if you can convince them you are right on our behalf they might depart the market sooner rather than later. Good luck in your work
FBA.
We are not going back to the lending ways of 2007 for a long time FBA so get use to the banks not lending.
Inflation looks set to stay above 4% reducing affordability
Wage inflation looks set to stay at naff all - reducing affordability
Interest rates look set to stay at record lows - reducing forced sales
Unemployement - looks like it will increase normally increasing forced sales but enforced banks forebearance will negate this
Population - increasing however unsure if this will increase the % of homeowners which is actually decreasing
I could go on but my best guess and thats all it it can be from anyone is that prices over the next 2 years will continue with a very slow annual decline and turnover will also continue at its current low levels.
Supply to the market is reported to be running at an all time high Anna. Is there a reason vendors aren't choosing you?
*post got cut-off
In short, if I was offered a house at
I'll play ball PeeBee,
'No' would be the short answer.
The monthly repayments aren't as significant as the total amount of debt owed. That's the reason we've got into this whole mess in the first place; the obsession with 'affordability'.
Can't afford to buy a 150k home? No problem, just factor in your partner's wage.
Can't afford to buy a 200k home? No problem, take out a 30 year mortgage.
Can't afford to buy a 500k home? No problem, take out an IO mortgage.
In short, if I was offered a house at
aarrgghh! Yesterday's Land Reg data was of course for the month of June.
Anna: Land Reg is a lagging index. Yesterday's data was for the month of May, so probably re price negotiations in April.
PeeBee - One word for you:
Value
Now some more words. Let's imagine a shop near me is selling regular size bags of crisps for £10. I have a tenner in my wallet. That does not mean that I am going to buy the bag of crisps with that, or that I think £10 for a bag of crisps is a reasonable price.
Will be interesting to see the next set of figures as we've just had quite a good bounce.
If only we had more to sell!!!
Pee Bee,
I see surveyors all the time, twitching eye, nervously shuffling from foot to foot, glancing hither and tither as they try to justify (or not) the sale price achieved by a competitor as they quiz me about my current stock and recent sales completed/exchanged that I am doing or have done. They are all thinking PI. Nervous bunch.
Gosh they are scared.
It would be very difficult to over pay for or to over sell anything at present where a mortgage is involved.
But I take your point.
rant: the perfect politician's answer - and I am sorry to say the perfect display of how I believe you will ALWAYS react to the prospect of a property purchase! There will NEVER be a good time to buy for you. When and if the time is right, you will be looking for reasons not to - just as you have done in my example.
First reaction from you was pretty much along the lines of "not worth thinking about cos it ain't ever going to happen", was it not? Then, in order to humour me, you brought the grey cells into action - but all they did was look for negatives, which you then list. But MOST telling - NO ANSWER. Just a hint of a "probably not"...
Mate - I was asking a 'what if'. Today, tomorrow is a 'what if?' - until it arrives. If I am destined to walk in front of a bus at no specified time or place in the future, I do not know which bus it will be. I simply know it is going to happen. Does that mean I NEVER cross another road, regardless of the proximity of double decker taxis to my current position, for fear that one will materialise from nowhere or else break all land-speed records in its' mission to mow me down and fulfil my destiny?
IF I am wrong - please describe to me the conditions that need to prevail in order for you to buy without hesitation...
You ain't a lost cause - YET, rant. But b*gger me, pal - you are on the borderline of even ole PeeBee writing you off as one! ;o)
Pee Bee - are you offering to underwrite any negative equity for me ; )
Strange question, because it's a situation that isn't going to happen.
Depends upon what type of house I buy and where (ie, would I want to be relocating or upsizing later). Let's imagine I buy a two bed terrace now rather than a three bed semi. If five years later, house prices have come down say 20%, what position would I be in? Even with your, ahem, offer, I might have been better to wait. All depends on rent payments in between, how much I can grow my deposit in five years, how much the interest rate on that will change etc.
FBA: Here's the shock of the day - I'm with you pretty much all the way! ;o)
My ONLY comment would be with regard to surveyors. They are there first and foremost to protect the lenders' exposure, and not to peg prices at a certain level (although I concede that one almost runs hand in hand with the other...).
If that were so, what happened in the run up to 2007 to allow the prices to escalate as they did?
rant: here's one for you. IF you could buy a property today at its' current asking price; with a mortgage that cost you the same (or less...) as it would to rent it; with a guarantee that the property resale price would never be less than what you paid for it (or, if it WAS, you would not be penalised...),
WOULD YOU BUY IT?
I do love how everyone's solution to a debt crises, is more debt.
What could possibly go wrong?
125%.. I don't think so, 95% and sensible interest rates would do it.
Surveyors are there to protect against runaway prices, they are poised to down value sales agreed at over the top figures, and do so regularly. Fear ye not.
The market is ready, it just needs the flow of money to get 'kick started'
What I think Mr. Newness (and numerous others) have failed to grasp is that, in many cases, current price levels cannot be met without a return to the madness of 125% mortgages. I doubt those are going to be making a return any time soon.