Thought I would start the Bournemouth topic anyone noticing price drops

Hi buytoilet. I'm a newly registered contributor living in Poole. Semi retired academic with a taste for the real info on what's happening in the economy. Thought you might like to know that yesterday in Poole High Street I passed a very large vacant retail premises half way down the High Street on the right which now has builders at work inside and notices on every window as follows:

"Opening March 2008.

Call 01202 674777

www.kinghams.com

email: poole@kinghams.com.

Introductory selling fee of up to 50% off our Sole Agency Fees. Call now 67447 and speak to Mike Davies and Richard Grover"

Is this the ultimate statement of faith in the 'Spring Bounce'?.

Kinghams Estate Agency has two other branches locally

best wishes

juvenal

The Bournemouth Advertiser has quite a few estate agents ads with "New Price" splashed over them - doubt if it's an increase!

Have you noticed the advertiser is a lot slimer in contant with only the larger estat agents placing adds.

Spoke to an estate agent the other day, he said Goadsby have closed 3 branches with more to follow if the market does not pick up.

hi Juvenal welcome to the site can i ask what you did to find this place. Me I googled house price crash and there it was,but the site has changed a lot from the early days.

Hi - I'm not certain, but I may have seen a reference to HPC on Martin Lewis' moneysavingexpert site

I'm becoming a bit of an addict, and now looking at my own area with a bear's eye. I'm following the '15 EA's in one mile' in Ashley Road, Parkstone, Poole to see which goes belly up first, and watching house prices in my immediate Oakdale area. I've learned a lot already from the site.

With two sons aged 23 (twins), both postgraduates getting their first jobs and paying serious rent, I've woken up to the fact that their generation have been priced right out of the market, and potentially right into long term penury. Student debt plus absurdly inflated housing costs plus escalating cost of living seems a terrible way to start your working life.
I'm quite happy to take a 30% reduction/correction on the value of my own house in order to see a readjustment that will allow the new first time buyers a chance to get on the ladder.
Things have been crazy in housing for too long, and I've no sympathy with the BTL crowd when they eventually get burned. They exemplify the greedy individualism that's been the order of the day since Mrs Thatcher's time. Just a bit more fairness, and a bit less me! me! me!

Thanks for your reply welcoming me to the forum.

Checking 'Property Week' (The Bournemouth Poole and Christchurch edition) I can see a couple of dozen 'Price Reduced' in the first half of the paper, and a gratifying 'Make us an Offer' on one place, but the dominant impression is of the very large number of 'New Instruction' properties. Hoping for the spring bounce? Do we deduce a sell-fast-before-they-drop-further attitude? Hard to say at the moment.

I think most are waiting for the spring bounce, if they dont get it prices will go off a cliff. As people see the summer coming to and end, no offers on the table and winter around the corner they will have to cut.

Hi all, as a recent mover to rented accom. in the Bournemouth/Poole area (Branksome Park) am also now watching for evidence of decreases, mostly using the Property Bee plugin for Firefox. I have to agree that so far there seems to be only a small number of committed sellers reducing prices by 8 to 15% (and I also noticed that Mays reduced loads of their properties in one go although some were reduced by as little as £1!).

However there are lots more properties coming on that going off Rightmove and those properties that are selling will be in chains so I expect to see them 'unexpectedly reavailable' eventually. I agree that summer coming to an end will be when we start to see proper cuts.

I wonder if the flooding around Sandbanks yesterday will have done anything to make people nervous about living there!

Waterproof Rolexes and designer waders are the order of the day down on Sandbanks. Can you keep us posted on your Property Bee researches about price drops in our area? I'm watching the 15 EA's in Ahsley Road, Parkstone to see how many can survive current events. My area, Oakdale, Poole has virtually no buy/sell activity at present.

Regards

I just sold to rent in the last couple of weeks. I was offered a property last november that was on at 280,000 + for 250,000
located in Westbourne.

I can honestly say that i'm glad I did'nt buy it and look forward to more price decreases in the area.

Yup, certainly. Started monitoring on 1st Feb; since then the most notable things have been:
1. General lack of sales - things are going to Sold STC but a proportion are returning pretty quickly to Available - the rest just hang about;
2. Whilst it is not a flood, the stock is building up;
3. I would say there is more stuff coming on at the higher end (> £1million) than flats from BTLers, but that might just be indicative of the area?
4. A reasonable number of reductions (biggest has been £599,999 down to £500,000) but lots of non-movement. Just starting to see some props where there have been multiple reductions. I think when these are more common then we know things are getting interesting.

I'm living near Watford at the moment but will be moving to Charminster in a couple of months.

I've been monitoring BH8 on Property Bee (Charminster / Queens Park).

I'm noticing a lot of 5K drops in the 150K - 250K range with some drops as large as 15K. There also seems to be a lot more property coming on the market week on week.

I've also heard that Richard Carr has shelved mosst of his new build developments, anyone know if this is true?

Ked

I just set up as a member of HPC today , been following the site for months ....so as its my home town of 46 years , thought I would say hello to the sunny sunny Bournemouth crew .

I live in Southbourne East Bournemouth where over the last few years many Edwardian family homes have been replaced by blocks of 6 to 8 purpose built flats and the developers have had a long reign at destroying the character of the area , along with help from Bournemouth Council ...and the current planning regulations which it is rumoured snout in the trough Two Jags had something to do with putting in place

At the top of the road on the corner of Castlemain Ave and Southbourne road there is a large house that I see has aplanning application being made for permission for about a zillion flats ...so it looks as if developers still expect to make profits on purpose built flats in this area . .....Must have nerves of steel or deep pockets

I did notice on this site this week at one of the re possession auctions a 2 bed flat in a recently built purpose built block in Richmond Park road ( between Boscombe and Charminster) that had been purchased for in excess of £170K in October 2005 ...sold for £119 000

A 5 bed edwardian semi detached in my road went for £310k about 5 or 6 weeks ago

Hi Stonehenge, and welcome


Update from Poole BH15 Oakdale area

Just noticed that the price reductions on my patch on Property Snake have gone from 69 a month ago to 91 today.

One third of the complete listing of 91 reduced houses have been for sale for 9 months or so.

PS indicates that more sellers getting a bit of realism, but still very little moving that I can see.

The four houses for sale in my immediate area - off Wimborne Road, Poole - are still priced around peak prices of last summer.

The news is sinking in very, very slowly, it seems...


PS There are 15 EA's in a mile on Ashley Road, Parkstone - how the hell are these people making a living, when nothing is selling?

Welcome indeed Stonehenge.

@juvenal - in contrast in my BH13 area there are only 10 listings on Property Snake at all compared to your 91. However using Property Bee (such a good piece of software) it is clear that there are a lot more reductions around in BH13 than are appearing on Property Snake. In other words, your 91 price reductions might be lower than reality.

I am checking BH9 Lots of price drops coming through now. I never visit property snake these days it was good at the begging but not these days.

Richmond park road is er sign fantastic. Can see lots of people getting burnt on that road.

Yes , sign central as you say . A lovely old family home on the clifftop east of Boscombe pier was in the process of being knocked down today to be replaced by upmarket 'luxury' 'stunning ' prestige ' ....er glorified rabbit hutches ..with a bit of glitz thrown in ....so someone is obviously still confident .or foolhardy ...although as week end homes for the city boys ..they are unlikely to have as much cash to throw around now as in the last few years . ...guess people will always pay a certain premium for decent sea views though

One of these flats hit the buffers in a recent auction (? Andrews & Robertson? not sure) Unsold at a much lower price than last recorded.
Bournemouth Council admit almost with embarrassment that they hit their new housing target numbers years early because of all the 2-bed developments and conversions.

I know southbourne well.. but the new 2 bed sea front flats are on sale a ludicrous prices. along southbourne overcliff drive many of the new developments are going for between 500,000 to 650,000. Also the Honey combe chine/Barrat monstrosity 2 bed flats going for 650,000, and there building over about 170 odd flats! All the council got for the land was 7 million!

I can't wait to see how these will fair bring it on

Yes , lets hope the sea level rises a few inches as well and floods that new monstrous development at Honeycombe Chine . £500k for a glorified rabbit hutch with a bit of glitz and a decent sea view .

That was our public car park that Bournemouth Council sold .

Barretts must have a few bob laid out on that development .
I wonder how many they have sold to date .

I bet there not telling prospective purchasers that the Crescent 1/2 a mile up the road is smack and crack central for the south coast

Does anyone think Boscombe will become the in place to hang out once the surf reef is built.

I was talking about this the other day with a friend as we cycled past the new flats at Honeycombe whatsit. We felt that one of the reasons places like Newquay are so successful is that it is a very small town, so when the surfers are there, the town itself becomes a surfer place. Everywhere you go is surfers - it creates a kind of community I guess. We just didnt think that Boscome would afford surfers quite the same level of 'after-hours' community.

There were other things we wondered too. What kind of jobs would be brought to the area for example - bars, nightblubs and cafe jobs perhaps? These are not known for their excellent career prospects and high salaries.

Anyway, an interesting topic - I look forward to others thoughts.

Personally , I love Boscombe and it has always been the place to hang out , it is really cosmopolitan . It has suffered from a reputation for many years that is far worse than the reality . The south side of the main road (Christchurch Road ) has seen many flat developments over recent years ( which is still happening ) . Construction of the surf reef is finally underway . The north side of Christchurch road has not benefited as yet ( and in my opinion is unlikely to ) and it has quite a few flatlets / bedsits etc on which the local drug scene has been centred for many years ( The Crescent area ) . There are lots of coffeeshops and cafes in Boscombe and quite a few and varied small privately owned shops as well as the usual high street multiples . To the East of Boscombe there is a well established surf shop in Southbourne that has been there donkeys years . The main evening ent in Boscombe is centred on The Opera House a large venue which also puts on live music . It recently had an extensive and tasteful refurbishment .

I guess if the surfers hit town , and Bosco becomes a south coast version of Venice beach in LA , there are already plenty of places for them to eat , score their drugs and hang out . It may need a surfers pub for the cool crowd to hang out at in the evenings . There are no wine bars in Boscombe at the moment which would probably suit the surfers as its not really their scene .

Boscombe has its own well established identity , which the surfers would certainly not take over as they may do in places like Newquay , but they are welcome to blend into it .

I suppose Boscombe may have a chance of recovering a bit now a certain well-known property developer and landlord is rumoured to have laid off the boys with baseball bats in an effort to become respectable - perhaps now he's got shedloads of money he fancies a knighthood for public services?

yes , he owns 2500 ish properties in the area now , and has recently completed a £90 million refinancing . He put the baseball bats away quite a few years ago I have personal experience of genuine acts of kindness he has bestowed upon tenants believe it or not .. Many years ago , my dad used to rent a garage from him and if you pay you rent on the nail there would never be any trouble .. He was the landlord that would rent places out to tenants that no other landlord would touch ...which I suppose was the reason he used to have to employ his own unique methods of enforcement.

The regeneration of Bosco would be in his interest as he owns so much of the property.



AFCB have just been relegated ....booo ..hooo

Big Shame Stonehenge, the recent fightback was worthy of survival

Good luck for next season

Thanks Bosh ...new season fresh start in August with a new owner Jeff Mostyn the local curtain king ...its happened many times over the years and they usually manage to get back up pretty quick..

Best of luck for Moscow .

Interesting subject. I'm going to state the obvious. If the reef really delivers good surf - year round - the rest will follow. Whether Boscombe moves up market, or simply becomes more colourful/bohemian/raffish is the unknown factor.

But if the surf's good, Newquay will have real competition. Friends of mine in the surfing mag business say the sport is growing and widening in appeal rapidly. I agree Boscombe's bad reputation isn't fully deserved. There are some very heavyweight dealers there, but the general public wouldn't know it. The violence stays in house, as it were.

I'm going over to Hengisbury Head in the morning, so will take a look at what's going on.

I've logged 50K drops on new builds on Richmond Park Road (250K -> 199K), they'll probably fall further before they're done. Also seen drops up to 45K in BH8 recently although the median seems to be between 5 -10%.

As for Boscombe, I've always had a soft spot for it since I lived there as a student 15 years ago (the years of the scouse DSS invasion). It's always been an edgy area which for me is what gives it a lot of its charm. I can remember paying £50 a week to rent a shared flat on the boscombe overcliff with a patio overlooking the pier and the Isle of White & Purbeck Hills, Grand View Appartments They knocked it down to build the first designer appartments, I reckon then rent may have gone up a little.

I think the surf tourists have a better chance of blending in to the local culture than Tarquin & Geneveive with their 600K 2 bed rabbit hutch. I think the Cellar Bar would make a pretty good surfer hangout

With a bit of luck I'll be moving back down to Charminster from Slough in 6 weeks, I cannot wait!

Click to view attachment


Click to view attachment



I was down by the pier in brilliant sunshine this morning - looked like the South of France. I don't think your fifty quid a week will get one of these new flats! No sign of reef building yet - to be 250 yards offshore down left from the pier. Reef is to be made of submerged huge 'sausages' of ballast bags 30 metres long - marine life friendly.

Reef construction starts anytime now. New beachfront apartments are nearly ready. Sorry if I've double posted -I'm still learning image insertion...

Click to view attachment


Click to view attachment



I was down by the pier in brilliant sunshine this morning - looked like the South of France. I don't think your fifty quid a week will get one of these new flats! No sign of reef building yet - to be 250 yards offshore down left from the pier. Reef is to be made of submerged huge 'sausages' of ballast bags 30 metres long - marine life friendly.

Reef construction starts anytime now. New beachfront apartments are nearly ready.

The honeycombe beach flats have a really obnoxious mixture of colours. It may look "funky" now but in 20 years time they just will look soo dated..

I've not seen any large falls in Bournemouth yet some 10% ones but no huge reductions.. still waiting

There slowly coming through Conrad, as the average 3bed property is around £280,000. 28k is a hell of a whack when the drops are only just starting to show.

Property for BH9 is still giving nice price drops, I am still waiting to see more 3 bed semis for less than 200K, but it is still early days.

Has anyone heard about the problems that some of the developers locally are having? Heard some rumours about a well known one, but nothing substantial. There must be a number that are struggling as there are a lot of new build flats that arent selling.

Hi everyone - new to this forum and recently moved down to Poole from London. Should have stayed really as jobs are hard to get down here, salaries low and our house has lost money already but our house in London has gone up £100K!!

I have to own up to loving Boscombe though and bought a flat there 4 years ago - against everyone's advice. I still think its the best place along the coast to hang out and its never been empty (yes its a BTL) but before that other poster bites me - it will be my pension unless I end up being repossessed! But all your comments on Boscombe make me feel that I was right. Its a really great little area but only south of the Christchurch Road. The beach is great (except in July and August) and the views are to die for. Hope that ugly awful smelly pub is going down there on the pier?

As a new person to the area - the first thing I noticed is that all the lovely old houses (especially corner plots) are being knocked down and hideous blocks of apartments being built. I know of some local property developers (well I know them when I see them) and worked abit in property down here..... they are feeling the squeeze - but where is that man with the loud boat? Havent seen him around lately. I did hear a rumour....

Hi London Girl.

I live in Southbourne but can vouch that boscmombe is a nice place... Although the roads aare a little narrow and no parking for any tourists unless you pay 7 quid and park on the promenade! The cresent is still full of crack whores and dodgy dealers and the main street is full of chavs hanging outside primark. The Reef development of 47 flats is apparently the daily mail award winning complex is a sham, sewage has filled many of the ground floor flats and the developer has been housing residents in hotels!

The beach is gorgeous but they have just ruined some of the charm by building the Barrat honeycombe chine complex monstrosity.

btw your man in the big load boat is that RC or DW? I'd love to hear some stories on either of those.


Also whats it like living in Poole?

welcome to the forum

Hi Conrad - thanks for the welcome Being new to this forum I keep clicking on reply and it gives me a quote! Sorry. Yes I love Boscombe its the only place down here that gives me a sense of being at the seaside - find the other beachs around Sandbanks and Vesuvios abit "posh" for want of a better word! When I bought my flat in Argyll Road we spent 3 days living there painting it etc and in the evenings we would wander down to the beach for a swim and it was deserted (September) and it was just so cool. Then a few wines in Pierpoint. Very nice. There is also the new Urban Beach hotel/bar/restaurant at the end of Argyll Road that is really nice too. I know the Crescent stinks - but I did hear that because big investors down there they are trying to clear it up? The Barratt development is a joke - those prices!! Interesting about the Reef - had not heard that.

Yes I was referring to RC. Heard this rumour that he had been attacked with baseball bats around the knee area...? I know the developers are struggling. I worked with one and he has pulled in belt and not buying at the moment. Others have flats that are unsold and still under construction. I hope I can keep my flat as I love it and I think Boscombe will pull through. Sandbanks will probably sink ha ha!

Hello Wessex City team . I have been offline for a week or so because my account was locked and I couldnt work out how to get back on . Also I was enjoying the first blast of summer on Southbourne beach and it was good to get away from the computer . The sea numbed me on the first day , but by the fifth it seemed much warmer .

As Ked mentioned , the Cellar Bar will probably be the natural hangout for the surfers when the reef is completed as its laid back , and has live music and occasional reggae .. Maybe a bit small though . Its always been a bit of a locals hang out .

There are quite a few empty shops on Boscombe high steet i noticed at the moment . All with big blue signs covering the window space showing the sea glistening and mentioning the surf reef ...hopes are obviously high for this in Boscombe .

I have heard of one small local developer stopping work on all sites and trying to sell off a couple of parcels of undeveloped land .

Glad to hear that daily mail award winning reef flat development has been filling up with the brown stuff , just about symbolises the quality of the flats they have been building for the Tarquins and Geneveives over last few years .

Southbourne is sandbanks without the glitz and mega£ cost of buying into .
Has anyone noticed any price drops around the southbourne area like Bh6

Welcome to the new posters in this thread .

It was great to see the FA Cup come to the south coast yeasterday , well done Mr Redknapp

Ive seen a drop in prices at BH14 in Poole. House previously valued at £700K+ sale agreed for £550K this month.

I have been interested to read the comments from the locals in the B'Mouth area..... I have known the area since the 1950s and spent a lot of time particularly around Southbourne and agree with the comments about how pleasant it is! I hope at some time to be able to move close to the area but that is for the future.

I also note the negative comments regarding the Honeycombe Chine development and fully agree......Has anyone got firm info as to how the flats are selling - have the £1m++ penthouses sold yet I wonder? When I walked past the other week I wasn't much impressed by either the colour scheme or the apparent physical finish - the winter storms can be quite heavy even on the sunny South Coast. Are the "basic" flats selling?

On a more general point I have been watching the Southbourne area on Property Bee for the last couple of months or so and there are now quite reasonable reductions appearing. There appears to be a glut of flats (new and conversions) available, particularly around the Overcliff Drive area, which has always been a "favoured" location. and there also appear to be a large number of detached for sale in the Southbourne / Boscome area with many drops, even around the "desirable" Hengistbury Head area.

Braeside Developments, one of the larger developers in Poole has been placed into administration

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/late..._in_trouble.php

Hi everyone - can someone tell me how you reply on this forum without bringing up the last persons post??

I havent been posting - busy looking for a job - what with the property market going pear shape. Heard about Braeside - but had heard things werent too rosy there. I went down to the coffee shop on Boscombe Beach last week - its magic down there. But does anyone have any info on what is happening with that awful Neptune pub. Wouldnt it be great if it was turned into a nice pub/ bar / restaurant?

Hello London Girl,

try clicking on the Add Reply right at the bottom of the page. I have heard various news on Boscombe Spa Redevelopement. But I have heard that spit and sawdust Neptune may be revamped. see this

http://www.bournemouth.co.uk/scms/media.ph...20Sept%2007.pdf

some form of resturant with panoramic views I believe....

I notice they have finally opened the pier at boscombe although there is not alot to do on the pier and there are no benches for the old! Still must'nt grumble at least its safe and it will certainly drag a few ppl down to boscombe.

Another method is to highlight the quote you want to reply to. Then click 'Quote' and 'Reply' at bottom right.

When the whole quote appears in your reply box, simply highlight everything you dont want, then press DEL on your keyboard. This will leave just the bit you want between the [quote] [quote] boundaries you've left.

Hope this makes sense.

Hi everyone

Am also new to the site. I found it a couple of years ago but moved abroad for awhile and came back to the abysmal state of this economy in the beginning of this year. Not very well timed.

In any case, I also live in the Bournemouth area and used to live in Boscombe. I now live in the town centre.

I didn't know that the Neptune bar at Bournemouth pier was going to be spruced up but do know that in the new developments at The Reef project they are hoping to attract an upmarket restaurant. So the Neptune bar will be getting some competition! The council is going out for tender for the restaurant, shops and surf school at the moment, closing date is 1 August. So hopefully at the end of the summer more will be known.

I don't know if Boscombe can go up-market, reef or restaurants notwithstanding. I was driving through the main centre Sunday and an exotic looking young, black prostitute was there, obviously touting for business in the middle of the day. The bright sunshine made it look really bizarre. She was still there, on the other side of the road, when my wife and I came back through an hour later. I'm a local, but have never seen this in the daytime before.
Looking forward to seeing the reef completed, though.

In the autumn, when I was last back, I was told by a local estate agent who was working with Barretts that the 1million+ tag was "aspirational" and that they would take OIRO 800K for the 1 million quid penthouses. Surely the land registry will tell us what has sold.

Personally, as an ex-Canford Cliffite I prefer Boscombe. The beach is less far less crowded, even in the high summer and the facilities are better + there is a Primark! It probably lacks a really good pub like the Nitejar but the Commodore is not bad (apart from the yobs on mini motos) and I like the beer at the Percy Shelley.

I have a property opposite Shelley Park, anyone know the status of the redevelopment? It was all systems go, they dug up the bowling pitch, then everything ground to a halt.

You've only got to look at the Boscombe demographics... Yes - the sea front is too damned expensive but just behind it you've still got bed-sit CENTRAL. A lot of of the Bournemouth low-paid workers and Benefits sitters live just behind there... and come summer you sit on Boscombe beach and it is CHAV CENTRAL. No one from the area would CHOOSE to pay stooopid amonts to live in Boscombe.... It may be cosmopolitan, but just walking through boscombe high street you still have old second hand cruddy furniture stores... pawn your stereo stores... cash your cheque here stores... and stores you think 'how the F+-? do you even stay afloat'!! That old arcade in Boscombe is still half empty! You walk down past that ROUGH pub just opposite richer sounds at night and you get all the ROUGH lot in there that may as well come from a deprived estate on the outskirts of Liverpool. You pass god knows how many odd balls in the high street.... It really doesn't ring with the type of image they are projecting right on the sea front. Boscombe will always be Boscombe.... Its a bit tough to say it but its got that turdy element to it... try as they may to polish it. Just over the wrong side of the high street you've got the packed terraces with still a lot of a 'rougher' families all mixed in with the odd smack head here and there above an amusement arcade... The Crescent and walpole road with a reputation that still hasn't cleared. Any local knows where the cheaper more affordable shoe boxes to live in are in Bournemouth - from Asda thru springbourne right up to north Boscombe. Any surfers will make sure their combi van is well locked... oh wait a minute there is no where to park... the council sold off the parking for another development!

In all seriousness .... why spend £600k in Boscombe when you can live in Alum chine or the west cliff - or come to think of it Bransome park. Who would seriously even trust a luxury expensive car in Boscombe out of a locked garage... It would always be at the back of your mind it might be keyed!! anyone from the area knows I'm right!

;o)