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More homes for sale but prices continue to fall

Simon Ward
by Lovemoney Staff Simon Ward on 10 January 2012  |  Comments 8 comments

The latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors survey finds more properties coming onto the market but "unrealistic prices" holding back sales.

More homes for sale but prices continue to fall

Property sales only dipped slightly in December, according to the latest UK Housing Market survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). But the outlook for the first three months of this year is not so promising, with “unrealistic price expectations” being blamed for a potential slump in sales.

Surveyors reported that house prices are continuing to fall, albeit at their slowest level since June 2010. London was the only region to see prices rise, while the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside recorded the biggest falls.

And prices are predicted to keep falling over the next three months.

The average number of completed sales per surveyor in December was 15.2, only slightly less than its best level since autumn 2010. And more homes came onto the market for the third consecutive month.

There was also a slight increase in the number of buyers coming onto the market. But surveyors reported that a lack of mortgage finance is continuing to hold back many potential buyers.

That situation isn’t likely to improve any time soon, with a recent report by the Bank of England noting that many lenders would be tightening their lending criteria this year.

More: House price predictions for 2012 | Why UK house prices will fall | 5 ways to cut your mortgage costs

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Comments (8)

  • yocoxy
    Love rating 70
    yocoxy said

    Hey Nick, is that the same 50% fall that you've been predicting for more than 2 years? Do you mean 50% from today's prices, 50% from the peak or 50% from the date that you started this mantra? Maybe you'll always hope for 50% from the current price..

    I see from one of your earlier posts that you want to meet back here in 3 years so that you can rejoice in being proved right.. Only 5 months to go now..

    http://www.lovemoney.com/news/property-and-mortgages/mortgages/3492/five-new-property--mortgage-tips

    According to Nationwide, UK-wide prices are up 7% since your post above.

    Report on 13 January 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Marcia9
    Love rating 4
    Marcia9 said

    Well i am a bit hard headed about all this and have lived through successive highs and lows (both of house prices and mortgages) since I bought my first property in 1985.

    What saved me from a bad sell as others in my block were letting go for £20k under (and this was 1/5th of their purchase price, was being free to move out as I disliked living there, rent the flat, live elsewhere and wait for the market to recover.

    Again in 2002 we were in a roomy victorian house that was different to other houses in the area but lacked a large garden so you can imagine the families liking the house but the garden was a no no. After 1 year with estate agents doing their best I eventually marketed it online and sold at £1k below my asking price and included most of the furniture, to a chap who wanted to let the rooms out. Lesson learned - it will always sell, if you have the time and can wait, that is.

    When my mother in law died we were again faced in 2008 with a recession and few were buying. A lovely house, but unsavoury neighbours of the recently settled variety. I tried privately and with an agent.

    By now I recognised the buyers who had been on an expensive training course with companies who 'taught' you how to negotiate, string the buyer along and then just before exchange decide to try and have you accept up to £30k less or pull out. I let them pull out and after 9 months revamped the kitchen, modernised with a face lift and new carpets and successfully let it for 18 months. It sold for the asking price to a couple who had viewed it 2 years prior. They evidently liked it enough to pay the price ... well okay, we had reduced it from £220 to £200 at the recommendation of an agent.

    We were fortunate; didn't need the money urgently; didn't mind moving elsewhere and renting (or even buying another house in one instance with 2 mortgages going, while the rented house was waiting sale).

    Report on 18 January 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves

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