Sellers still trying to name their price

Despite market conditions pushing house prices down, and the crisis in financial markets making it ever more difficult to get a mortgage, house sellers are continuing to ask high prices for their properties.

[ClickPress, Wed Apr 02 2008] Despite market conditions pushing house prices down, and the crisis in financial markets making it ever more difficult to get a mortgage, house sellers are continuing to ask high prices for their properties. The latest House Price Index from the UK’s leading property website, Rightmove, shows that first-time asking prices had again risen slightly (0.8%), and were at roughly the same level as record highs last year – not even 1% lower than the record high in October 2007.

Commenting on this, Miles Shipton, commercial director of Rightmove, said: “Most sellers coming to the market seem to be ignoring the increased competition from other unsold properties and the challenge buyers now face in obtaining a mortgage.”

Sellers normally lower their price after there has been no interest in the property for several weeks, and the actual selling price tends to be some 10% below peak boom prices. But rather than moving towards a convergence, the gap between the seller’s first asking price and the amount the buyer is able to afford is getting wider.

Lawrence Smith of Decision Homebuyers observed that “With so much supply in the market, and so little demand, sellers have to pitch their asking price just right, even if it means going lower than the competition to clinch a deal .. What they don’t want is be stuck with a ‘For Sale’ sign when prices drop further, which will certainly happen in coming months.”

The crisis in global financial markets, and the severe effects of the credit crunch, are critical factors in the slowdown of the housing market. UK banks and building societies, while not suffering the same aftershocks of the subprime crisis as in the US, have cut back drastically on their mortgage options while raising the bar for standards of creditworthiness. So, while a surfeit of properties enters the market, many potential buyers are forced out of it, because they cannot get a mortgage The Rightmove report urges sellers to act sooner rather than later in setting realistic prices, and also urges the government to take immediate steps to strengthen mortgage funding markets and to improve lending systems between banks.







For press enquiries, please contact Phil Rendall on 020 7099 9026
Email: phil@dhbuyers.co.uk
Web: www.decisionhomebuyers.co.uk

News provided by Decision Homebuyers, a leading UK property company offering a quick and simple solution for selling your home, no matter what the condition.

Decision Homebuyers carries out daily surveys of the national media to provide up-to-date news and commentary on the UK property market.

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