There is so much downward pressure on prices that sellers really need to give themselves some kind of edge to get the best price. Widening a home’s exposure by selling privately is one way of doing this.
Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of Zoopla, said: For the past few months, asking prices have been somewhat out of kilter with what buyers are prepared or can afford to pay, but sellers are becoming increasingly realistic.
The traditional new Year influx of properties coming to the market for sale will mean even more competition among sellers, and many are keen to try to secure a buyer this side of Christmas and are lowering their expectations accordingly.
Strangely, the percentage of sellers reducing their asking prices is highest in the south, with half of all sellers in Swindon, 47% of Norwich home sellers, and 46% of Bournemouth sellers having cut their asking price at least once since August. The same goes for more than 40% of sellers in Poole, Exeter, Bristol, Coventry, Birmingham, Leicester and Northampton.
While a higher percentage of sellers have been cutting prices in the south, the cuts have been smaller. The average reduction in Poole was 5.1%, and in London the average reduction was 5.2%. however, because houses in London and the south are more expensive, these cuts are still higher in real terms; nearly 21,000 and over 31,000 respectively.
It seems that we bears were right to predict a second crash. Prices should never have started rising last year, and did so only because of drastically weak supply levels. now the abolition of HIPS and other factors increasing supply, on top of the economic outlook and current and impending government cut backs, high unemployment and millions of people still on reduced or frozen salaries, the only way is down for UK house prices.
While the financial crisis was a major catalyst, UK house prices crashed because they had risen faster than incomes, and become unaffordable for first time buyers. Because they didn’t fall or correct far enough a second fall became inevitable when prices started rising last year — it was only a matter of time.
Selling Property Privately Is Even More Beneficial in A Down Market