Journal Property News

[Turnbull2000]

Oh, and the Sunday Sun. YOU MUST LISTEN TO THE EXPERTS PEOPLE!!!!

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/north-east...79310-22470790/

PROPERTY investors hoping to land homes at bargain prices are targeting the North.

Estate agents in the region say they have seen a massive increase in the number of people inquiring about properties.

And most are from people looking to snap up repossessed homes which are being auctioned.

Joanne Longstaff of Tyneside-based Sarah Mains estate agents claimed that more people than ever are visiting their auctions. She said: “We have noticed a definite increase in the number of people who are choosing to buy at auction.

“I think people are realising that prices have gone as low as they are likely to and that, for those people who can get a mortgage at the moment, it is a good time to invest.”

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/homemak...-name_page.html

THIS week’s further slash in interest rates coupled with falling house prices could spell good news for “savvy homebuyers” as the market looks ahead to 2009.

With interest rates now at just 2%, a rate not seen since 1951 and equal to the all-time record low in the UK, property experts in the region are urging buyers to take advantage of this rare situation.

The rental market is also providing to be a sound investment, according to Mr Foster.

He said: “Rental yields are becoming attractive again, we have seen some offerings of close to 10% – gross return – and will be increasingly so as savings interest rates fall further. Investors and speculators should be looking now to enter the market, particularly the buy-to-let and volume new-build sector where there are some very attractive deals to be had but stocks of these properties will fall with the declining pace of construction.”

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/homemak...-name_page.html

The North – covering the North East and Cumbria – was the only region of England and Wales not to see asking price falls during the month, with asking prices here rising by 1.3%, says the survey by property website Rightmove.

Annually asking prices in the North are down only 4.5%, despite other surveys suggesting annual price falls in the region of 8.3% (Land Registry), 8.6% (Nationwide) and 9.3% (Halifax). Rightmove commercial director Miles Shipside said the market in the North was less likely to suffer the sharp peaks and troughs of the South.

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/homemak...-name_page.html

Property expert Richard Sayer says that, despite the economic downturn, it’s time to look again at property:

In a whirlwind year for the UK economy, business and personal wealth, I think now is the time to look at the reality of the results.

Mortgage rates are down 2% on a year ago, and the rate then was at one of the lower rates that we have had over the past 25 years.

We were told to panic about the spectre of inflation, which we now know has “peaked” at 4½% – but that doesn’t scare those of us who can remember 20% inflation in the 1970s. We were told that food costs have shot up, fuel costs shot up 35% but are now back at the level they were a year ago. We have to believe energy costs will now fall as well.

Among this self-induced panic, stocks and shares have collapsed, for many apparently sound companies over 50% and in several cases down to zero. For the first time in 100 years your very savings in the bank have been perceived as being “at risk” and could be lost.

Well my industry, the property market, has been pushed in everyone’s face by most sections of the media for more than 15 months as “ripe for disaster” and this has proved manifestly to be a great exaggeration.

Prices have dropped in the North East, perhaps by 15% – hardly a disaster, but making first-time properties much more affordable for the young. It is mortgage availability which is now preventing them from buying.

Many people are now nervous of what to do with their savings. They won’t like getting 3½% return from the bank and they aren’t ready to buy shares and investments.

Over the past 50 years property has risen at an average rate of 10% or more. You have to believe that if you buy now, in three years’ time you will see a significant gain. Investing in property is, literally, the most rock solid investment people can find at present.

If you are climbing the housing ladder, the more expensive house you are buying has dropped more than your current home and you are making a tangible gain. For buy-to-let investors, the property you are buying has dropped sharply and the rent you will receive from it has gone up. The maths is indisputably sound.

If you take good advice, know what to buy and what to leave behind, I genuinely believe that there has never been a better time to move home or invest in property in the past 18 years.

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/homemak...-name_page.html

WITH borrowing costs at their lowest since 1955 and keen property bargains to be had, now really is a good time to buy a home, according to North East property experts.

The recent interest rate slash has provided a welcome boost to the region’s property market, particularly in the new homes sector. Builders are reporting a marked increase in demand and renewed interest from first-time buyers.

Shepherd Homes’ sales and marketing director, David Smith, said: “We have taken a transparent approach to our offers with no gimmicks built in to our prices, just straightforward reductions on selected homes.

“Demand for these properties has increased and we have had a surge of sales to first time buyers, which is a positive indication that market confidence is increasing. However, market forces dictate that increased demand will lead to increased prices, therefore now is indeed an ideal time to buy – especially with the recent interest rate cut from the Bank of England.

Richard Bass, managing director at Keepmoat Homes North East, agrees that this is actually a good time to buy.

He said: “As the credit crunch continues to bite and people tighten the purse strings with Christmas approaching, I would still encourage those interested in moving and particularly first-time buyers to consider a home purchase.

Edited December 25, 2008 by Turnbull2000

[AndyAndy]

Estate agents in many parts of Northumberland have sold little if anything in months.

If your livelihood depends on increasing house prices you are going to say and do anything legal to try and achieve a sale including trot out all this investment guff. All the people being quoted are trying to sell houses - all of them!!!!

The grim reality is most people need a mortgage to buy a house and mortgages amounts are, if anything, going to be more restricted so in the NE the average mortgage will go back to what is manageable - £60k - being 3 times average full time earnings of 20kish.

Simply because house prices have not dropped yet is the lag in the North compared to the South. The South goes down first and any recovery will come in the South first too. Once NE redundancies start kicking in and public sector spending gets hit as it has to be reigned in within the next 18 months to 2 years NE house prices will take a dive. Thats my view and the view of every other sane person - we are the people with the money and we aint buying until house prices take a 40% drop.....

Edited December 26, 2008 by AndyAndy

[Quokka]

If your livelihood depends on increasing house prices you are going to say and do anything legal to try and achieve a sale including trot out all this investment guff.

Sadly they are failing to see that their livelihood actually depends on falling prices. Until they fall enough the market will be dead and the will make nothing.

Trying to push investment property is criminal. There is a glut of rentals on the market, swelled by those who can't sell, and rents are dropping.

[neilrich]

The worst economic downturn in more than sixty years, rising unemployment, the future prospect of deflation...yet there has never been a better time to buy a house!! What? They believe the North East is somehow immune? The problem being that first of all estate agents are not only thick, the lowest of the low in my book, they are fighting for survival!!

Heard it all before!! Take the following from 1996, that's right...six years into the crash!!

Yuko Wakabayashi, a 38-year-old housewife, says: "In Japan we believed that the value of land never fell. All the estate agents said that whatever happened, we would be up after 10 years and could move on if we wanted. Instead we are left with a huge debt."

Here's the full article.

Paying off debt until past retirement(Filed: 11/05/2003)In 1996, the Wakabayashis spent £220,000 on a flat that would sell for half that today writes Colin JoyceBritish homeowners enjoying the boom in UK property values might spare a thought for the Japanese who have endured 12 consecutive years of decline.Falling house prices have created a generation in negative equity, damaging consumer confidence and reining in household spending.The Wakabayashi family from Kanagawa bought a two-bedroom apartment of 67 sq metres for £220,000 in 1996. They estimate that if they sold today they could get just £110,000.Though the apartment was a long way from the nearest station and more than an hour by train from Mr Wakabayashi's office in Tokyo, they bought because it was as much as they could afford at the time. Today, they say they could never afford to sell it.Yuko Wakabayashi, a 38-year-old housewife, says: "In Japan we believed that the value of land never fell. All the estate agents said that whatever happened, we would be up after 10 years and could move on if we wanted. Instead we are left with a huge debt."After seven years of meeting repayments they have barely made a dent in the £170,000 they borrowed. After sales taxes and agent's commission, they estimate that if they sold they would be left with a debt of £70,000.Their story is by no means unique. It is repeated in households across Japan, though people in apartments have fared worse than house owners and the suburbs have suffered more than cities.Mr Wakabayashi, a section chief at a dairy company, was 33 when he took out a 35-year loan. In other words, he will be paying off the loan well past Japan's official retirement age of 60.Japanese lenders often offer salarymen five times their annual salary, on the assumption that they have a job for life and receive annual pay rises. The loans are typically structured to fit the tradition that companies pay large bonuses twice a year and a huge lump sum on retirement.However, Japan's economic crisis means those assumptions are increasingly uncertain. Many companies have frozen pay. Others have simply gone bankrupt. People fear that companies may soon shrink bonuses and retirement packages, as they are discretionary.Mrs Wakabayashi said: "So far my husband has received his annual pay rises, but Snow Brand, one of Japan's biggest dairy producers, went bust last year. It is worrying to have such a big loan in such uncertain times."

[neilrich]

The worst economic downturn in more than sixty years, rising unemployment, the future prospect of deflation...yet there has never been a better time to buy a house!! What? They believe the North East is somehow immune? The problem being that first of all estate agents are not only thick, the lowest of the low in my book, they are fighting for survival!!

In today's Daily Telegraph Roger Bootle's predictions for 2009 include house prices to decline by 20%, and RPI shall go negative reaching -3% come the end of the year!! But, let us not forget, according to the wasters that write in The Journal... there has never been a better time to buy a house!!

[tccambs]

OK, I admit it, I have been adding to the influx of enquiries. Doesn't mean I'm going to rush in and buy just yet.

Best response so far from Your Move when phoning to view a repo house:

Them: What / where are you interested in?

Me: Houses with a garage in Heaton, Gosforth, Benton

Them: What is your buying position?

Me: Cash buyer, no mortgage needed

Them (interested): How much are you looking to spend?

Me: I don't see myself paying any stamp duty.

Them (disappointed): Oh, I'm afraid I don't see any of our vendors going *that* low.

I think by Easter they'll have changed their mind. They have lots listed at around £220k.

[Doghouse]

I agree with you Quokka, all the EAs are doing by trying to ramp up prices is dragging out the inevitable fall. All EAs should get together and agree to re 'value' properties on their books at 20% from peak...any vendor that refuses to reprice their property should be taken off their books. Then they should agree to reprice every 3 months to keep asking prices realistic.

The sooner EAs realise that realistic prices will increase their sales, the better it will be for all of us (except Mr and Mrs MEWER who thought they could use their home as a cash machine for all eternity!!!)

At the most this is a dead cat bounce, at the least it's a statistical anomoly....but the sheeple are too stupid (or debted up to the eyeballs) to realise this.

And targetting the North East as an investment opportunity is an insult everyone who lives here, who is trying to buy a home of their own.

:angry: :angry: :angry:

[meow]

Sorry everyone, the prices have turned a corner better buy in now before prices rocket to 10 billion times wages due to all that lending the banks are going to do....

http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-ne...-name_page.html

Meanwhile, back on planet earth....

p.s. oops, just realised someone started a thread on this!

Edited February 9, 2009 by meow