The viewing format was horrible - "open houses" with maybe fifteen other interested parties kettled into / herded around the three properties by a smug agent and her 18yr old, 1st-day-on-the-job sidekick who, while she was trying was utterly clueless.. her only worth evidently being to shuffle the throng from one property / room to the next.

IIRC there were two properties advertised at £225k and one at £230k because it had a garage. I can only identify two in the RM sold data:

No.20 (no garage), advertised for £225k and bid up to / sold for £240k in October 2016

No.4 (with garage), advertised for £230k and bit up to / sold for £258k on August 2016

Two more have also sold last year:

No.16 which sold for £237k in January 2016

No.32, which sold for £245k in November 2016 (This might have been the other one we viewed, having completed pretty late)

While recently two more have been listed for sale:

One at £225k on the 5th of June which has just become "sold STC"

And, far more promisingly / tellingly a good friend recently brought to my attention another, with a garage that went on at £230k on the 16th of June and has just been reduced to £225k.

Comparing the two properties with garages suggests a stark difference between last year's which was bid up from the asking price to £258k and this year's, which they evidently couldn't shift at £230k, so areexpecting to get £225k (or less) for. Assuming the properties are comparable (floorplan should be identical but admittedly the current one is 2nd floor while the other was 1st) that's a drop of £33k / 12% just comparing the sold price of one to the asking price of the other; not taking into account the very likely possibility that the one currently for sale will go for below asking.

This trend is nicely inkeeping with the latest Hometrack data, which suggestd that in April prices in Oxford fell by nearly 5% over the preceding quarter and 0.6% annually.

I suppose flats such as this are more likely to be hit harder than other properties if BTL demand dries up, which appears to have been the case.

In addition I've been keeping an eye on Kidlington (a town just on the outskirts that's 50% characterless '90s built boxes). Prices here were silly for a while, enjoying the overspill from those priced out of the city while a new station (that evidenly nobody was actually really bothered about), added lots of froth and agent excitement. I reckon the market here peaked at around this time last year and has been on the way down ever since.

Not that I really want to live there at all, but I've been watching this 1-bed, 30-odd m^2 shoebox, which originally went on in November last year at £225k and has subsequently been reduced in £10-15k chunks until arriving at £185k around a month ago, and it still hasn't sold. While one has to be careful of drawing conclusions from kite-flying asking prices, that's a fall of £40k / nearly 18% over the 6 months it's lingered on the market, and clearly nobody is prepared to pay even that.

Another that's come to my attention is this 2 bed / 51m^2 flat, listed in November last year at £235k, dropped to £200k in March and now lingering at £190k - a fall of 19%.

Also of note are some apparently newly-convered / refurbed flats above a restaurant or similar (clearly the wares of a speculative developer) that saw similar falls and have now apparently completely disappeared from the market (they're not even showing in my RM saved properties for some reason).

Property coming to market remains low (there was a glut of 60ish m^2 houses last year at aroind the £280k mark, many of which were reduced to £255-260k, sold and now the supply appears to have dried up).

I'm trying to get my hopes up too much due to the low supply (and there seems to have been a surge of stuff selling recently), however price-wise the Oxford market looks considerably more flat than it did this time last year, while Kidlington was undeniably overpriced and has taken a pounding. I'm wondering if the jump in sales volume is due to agents finally suffering cashflow issues and talking down seller price expectations to get stuff sold...

West Reading, nice and quiet mews estate built in 2006, 3 bedrooms with a decent garden.

Sell price in Jan-07 - £272k

Ask price in Sep-08 - £268k

According to my "rent vs buy" excel worksheet, if they manage to get the asked price, they will be £18k worse than if they had rented (90% mortgage assumption) or £19k worse than if they had rented (100% mortgage assumption).

I reckon it might sell around £210k. (in that case, they would be about £80k worse than having rented the same property)

I think I'll keep on renting for one more year...

Me and my partner are in the very lucky position that my parents want to invest in a rental property and have offered us the tenancy (we have been unlucky with landlords so this is great as they will of course be decent to us and if their finances allow maybe give us a little discount to help us save for a deposit).

They want to buy a house in Hertfordshire as we moved here 2 years ago for my job where we rented in WGC. They have a limited budget so are looking at stevenage mainly but due to covid im doing the actual looking, I have only ever been to the town center so have no idea where is nice to live. My partner works in london 2 days a week so wants to be able to walk to the train. I just want a nice sized home in a good area where we can have our cats and maybe start our family (although schools are not a consideration as we will hopefully have bought our own by then and might not even be in herts anymore)

People at work seem to hate living in stevenage which worries me. from reading online the east seems to be considered nicer, poplars ect, but my partner is very resistant to not being able to walk to the train. Does anyone have any insights that can help?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2115498/Haywards-Heath-residents-outraged-opening-99p-shop.html

Looking for a 3-4 bed semi or detached house, preferably with a garage and / or driveway. The market has gone dead round this area. Can anyone suggest any Lakes with easy access from residential area between Rickmansworth and Staines. Must be within 30 minutes drive of Gerrards Cross (parents are there). Budget is up to about £850K

If you can just name a decent sized lake that has paths around it I will look it up. So hard to tell with Google maps how big the lakes are and if there's access. Last week we walked around Wraysbury but gave up trying to get lakeside and also the noise of aircraft was a no no.

I've found this flat - down over 50% from peak ( normal for flats in Slough ) .145 K down in 3 years...

Flat 84 bought for L 279,950 on 31/07/2006

http://www.houseprices.co.uk/e.php?q=Flat+...Slough&n=10

and now look at that :

rightmove

Same flat 134,950

145 K down !!!!

I'll propably make an offer - 115 K ?? 120 ?? Ideas ?? Too early ?? Help

Guildford = £478 per square foot
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68104436.html

Alton Road, Putney = £436 per square foot
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-69327545.html

I had viewings on these two houses back in March.

This first was on for a asking price of £250,000.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-149...=4&tr_t=buy

It was taken off the Market a month after I viewed it. The Ea said to me on the viewing that the vendor were a couple whos son was at university and that now he had left they were selling up and I presume the reason why they took it off a month later is that they must of had a offer on it.

It is now back on the Market for £237,950

The second was on the market for £260,000 which was a Kite flying price but was then taken off the market a month ago.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-825...=6&tr_t=buy

its now back on for £250,000

I have noticed a increase of houses and a few that are back on the maket after being sold.

Has anyone else got their eye on the Brighton market?

The public is more stubborne though, if they can't sell and they can't they will just wait until they have to; probably at the same time a lot of other people have to. Rent out btl is harder for the owners and there is noticable rent reductions.

Literally?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-85371713.html

Anyone got any advice/experience of good places to live in the area above? I like a bit of countryside, but not a tiny village

Thank you!!!

My wife and I bought it in 1988 for 52,000. I remember it being a monumental struggle requiring a 2nd (additional) mortgage and the payment of a hefty Indemnity Insurance Premium for a high LTV mortgage. We lived on beans on toast for quite a while! We got jobs up north a year later and sold in 1989 for 58,000 - a stupid gain because of the withdrawal of MIRAS.

From the listing you can see how prices plummeted during that HPC - from 58,000 in 1989 to 25,000 in 1995 (and probably lower in 1990-1992). So really hard declines are possible and likely - they have happened before.

And today? 190K for a 1 bed starter home is outrageous - just as it was in 1988 when interest rates were more like 5/6/7%! I expect to see this go back to 80K by the time the dust settles. But as a home - my wife still considers it the best we ever had.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63772044.html

I think prices are going to go up and up until something major happens - it seems gov action is ''working' well in Hove. ;0(

I'm thinking of Woking, Surrey for a possible future buy. I've checked on the web and it does look as if house prices have not really fallen in this area. Do any of you have any idea why or do you predict future falls in Woking?

Many thanks for your help!

Steve

Friends of ours split up recently and are having to sell the house they live in - it was valued at approox £350k a year ago- estate agents have advised them to put it on the market for £450k as a house on the street apparently tried their luck at the end of 2011 and sold it for 100k more than the rest of the houses were going for - thus napparently ramping up the price of houses on that street.

Its a terrace, 3 beds, postage stamp garden BUT near a popular school (elm grove)

What is it about this city?

Its dirty, overcrowded, expensive, a crap place to bring up kids, employment is rubbish with average wages pretty low and its housing stock is fairly bad too- so WHY have house prices continued to defy the national picture. Rents are about 1300 for a 3 bed house per month too.

I have waited, hoped, prayed for the mother of all crashes here but nothing has happened. WHY? :angry:

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/190-birchen-grove/luton/lu2-7tp/28860779

not sold under a year later

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29721387.html

To me clear indication the damage HTB 2 has done 25k more but now deposit lower.

Wife works for a high street bank who don't offer HTB and first hand experience is they are getting very little business in way of mortgages.

For example, a house a few doors from me was bought in mid-2007 by it's current owners for £325,000, and they've just sold it for something above £340,000 as far as I know.

There are often price drops, but EAs seem to start by adding 10-25% to what might be a reasonable price in the first place, so they can look good by then dropping the price, and it seems to work in a lot of cases.... It seems like people don't bother to check previously sold prices.

Does anyone else have any experience of what's going on around St Albans?

Any locals with an opinion, please? All information welcome.

"Britain's Biggest House Price Falls:

ITV 1

Investigation into the current downturn in Britain's housing market, revealing the areas of the country worst affected and asking not just who stands to lose out, but who stands to benefit from the slump"

Er, I can guarantee this will be HPC friendly...

Stanstead Abbotts. See my profile for email address / tel no.

Thanks for any input.

I've seen reports in the news where someone has been in a real hurry that they've got information in less than a day! which surely is how it should be done.

The reason for asking is I'm trying to buy a 2nd house and do not want to be charge a fortune for doing something I can do myself.

Any one familiar with Milton Keynes area? I would like to know where is nicer carea in general. Where is the area that I should try to avoid. (For example, council estate area.)

I am going to rent a 2 bedroom house first. Any comment will be appreciated.

As expected, boomer types celebrating their advantageous position on the GetReading Facebook Page, with no comprehension or appreciation of the economic impact this will have on the generations behind them.

The sooner this becomes a political hot potatoe the better. These people aren't in this position due to success or intuition on their own part, but in the large, economic circumstance.

Sold just over a year ago for £800k, now on for only £825k, these guys are almost certainly going to lose out, even someone seeking 5% discount is going to mean they've lost money.

Is this a sign that all the recent HPC is having some influence, people trying to get out quickly without losing their shirts? Most other house in the vicinity are HPI tastic £1.2m + for similar size.