Monday, Jun 23, 2008
There are now far more sellers than buyers
BBC: Figures show plunge in home sales
The number of UK property sales has fallen by 32% this year, according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). There were 504,000 sales in the first five months of 2008 that were worth more than the new stamp duty notification limit of £40,000. That compares with 743,000 such sales in the same period last year. Meanwhile some big lenders have again put up the cost of their mortgages for new borrowers, with the Halifax and Lloyds TSB raising interest rates.
Posted by jack c @ 12:02 PM (944 views) Add Comment
13 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. hpwatcher said...
RE 504,000 sales
Still a lot more than I would have expected; still it's early days.
2. Yokel said...
"It's a sign that properties are taking longer to sell so there are more on the market," said Miles Shipside of Rightmove.
"There are approximately half the mortgages available there were a year ago, so there's only about half the transactions," he added.
So if half the supermarkets closed, we would only buy half as much food?
I think this `expert' is confusing `mortgage products' with `mortgages'
Y
3. Jimmyb said...
Yes hpwatcher it's amasing just how many fools are about.
4. Cyril said...
hpwatcher
from memory, the slump didn't really kick in until February or so
"The HMRC's figures show that in May alone sales were down by 37% on last year at just 98,000"
5. geed said...
@hpwatcher. I agree, the drop in sales is to be expected but it still means 504,000 person(s) bought in this climate. I know circumstances differ but half a million people have not been deterred by falling prices. It must be said though that the TRULY gloomy crash statistics only revealed themselves in April/May, this should cut that 504K figure down even further.
15 sellers to 1 buyer, bonkers statistic!
6. techieman said...
A graph would be good of this ratio. I had a quick look and found this : http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23431261-details/Number+of+home+buyers+drops+to+three-year+low/article.do
"Alex Stephens, Evening Standard
08.01.08 Related Articles
Slowdown looms but no room for gloom London still leads house price rises amid slump fears The number of buyers looking for new homes in London has hit one of its lowest levels for three years.
Figures today show there are now fewer than seven buyers chasing each property on the market.
A year ago, according to Hamptons International, the ratio of its housebuyers to properties was almost 11 to one.
It has recorded a 33 per cent year-on-year decrease in the number of sellers. In 1995 there were almost eight buyers per property.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23431261-details/Number+of+home+buyers+drops+to+three-year+low/article.do
It would be good to have a chart for the whole of the UK and regional with this stat. Anyone know if this has been prepared?
7. techieman said...
i like to see a corealtion bwteen this and price.
8. inbreda said...
Good point Yokel. I suspected that Miles was an a*se.
9. Ijjhall said...
What is even more bizarre is that given the deposits now required you would think they would be even more careful about buying. I know a couple who bought a two bedroom in south London for £195,000 that completed end of Jan 08 with 10 per cent laid down- the very same type of flat in the same complex is now on for £175,000. Deposit vanished in 4 months...harsh lesson to learn and perhaps we underestimate the influence of Kirsty et al and the media exposure they get to pump out their 'might as well buy now' propaganda. Obviously some people want to believe it and do go ahead...
10. mark wadsworth said...
As HPW points out, it appears that there are some buyers still prepared to cross the picket line, don't they know there's a BUYER'S STRIKE on at the moment? Scabs, the lot of them.
11. Charlie Brroker said...
geed, yeah, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that statistic. Astonishing!
12. mark said...
in grand lake in colorado, usa where we visited recently the average time for a sale is now 361 days.........
13. paul said...
The BBC have been remarkably quiet about the one statistic which sticks out like a carbuncle on a beauty queen's forehead:
"sellers now outweigh buyers by a ratio of 15 to 1"