Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008
The difference between the asking price and selling price increasing
FT: Property market suffers further falls in sales
Property sales remained sluggish in March, with both the number of agreed sales that fell through and the difference between the asking price and selling price increasing.According to the latest figures from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), the number of property sales decreased further in March to reach an average of seven sales per agent, down from eight sales the month before. In comparison, 14 sales per agent were reported during March 2007.The percentage of sales agreed that fell through also increased between February and March, rising from 8.6 per cent to 10.3 per cent.
Posted by jack c @ 10:01 PM (498 views) Add Comment
5 Comments
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1. voiceofreason said...
NAEA quoted as saying
[1] - "Over the next few months it is imperative that the shackles are released on the mortgage market so consumer confidence can be rebuilt, allowing the market to stabilise."
The NAEA would be much better off saying something like
[2] - "Over the next few months it is imperative that house prices sharply return to trend with a 30% drop, so that buyer confidence can be rebuilt, allowing the market to stabalise"
Because [1] ain't gonna happen. Banks already know prices will drop 10% at least. So they are not going to release any shackles on the mortgage market any time soon. But you wouldn't expect the NAEA to be clever enough to realise what their best course of action is would you :)
Also, with 7 sales per agent March 2008 vs 14 in March 2007, it looks like there will be 50% less EAs unless turnover returns.
2. crash bandicoot said...
Release the shackles! Tally Ho! Buy buy buy, sell sell sell. Greed is good. Show me the money. Ching Ching.
What planet is this numpty on? Who or what does he think is shackling mortgages. I'm fairly sure that lending me five times my salary would not rebuild my confidence.
3. becky said...
A couple of points. Firstly, to quote from article “ on a slightly more positive note, the number of properties on agents' books increased slightly with NAEA members reporting an average of 76 properties for sale in March compared with 74 in February 2008”.
This is very positive from an HPC point of view because it suggests more owners have decided to try and sell rather than holding out which means they are going to have to compete with each other on price for transactions. If this then leads to further falls it may start to flush out a few more of the “wait and hope” investment brigade.
Secondly at the bottom we have the NAEA saying that “the number of buyers on estate agents’ books has increased showing demand is still out there". Eh? Surely this shows supply is out there not demand!
4. becky said...
Oops - ignore the last point - I've just noticed it says buyers not sellers!
5. mark wadsworth said...
Top stuff from the FT who seem to be coming round to Martin Wolf's point of view (see editorial of last Saturday which just re-hashed his 'Let 'em fall!' war-cry of the day before). If we knock the 4.7% gap between asking and selling prices and Rightmove's 0.1% change in asking prices to March (up or down? who cares?) then I guess the April fall as per Halifax is going to be pretty tasty?
Any advance on 2.5% 'the biggest fall since September 1992'? Don't forget, 3% in Sept 92 was the biggest monthly recorded fall EVER. SO if we beat 3% it will be the biggest monthly fall EVER! Now that's what I call a headline!!!!!!!!