Sackville

Just thought I'd update. We sold our place for £175,000. I'm told the same sort of place (modern purpose built 2 bed flat in Enfield with balcony) was going for £180,000 in April. What we got was a bit less than we expected but we're not upset as we did make a small profit on it. For those of you who think everyone in the housing market is making a killing, let me point out that this small profit after costs such as agency fees/lawyers/home improvements/remortgage fees etc (I'm not going to be specific but it was less than £10,000) came after 4-1/2 years of ownership, where we put down a 10% deposit and overpaid every single month by a significant amount. If we had not seen a 20-25% price increase in house price values and if we had gone wtih a normal 25-year mortgage and not overpaid every month, I'm sure we'd have been showing a net loss, although the costs may still well have been less than if we'd rented.

I live in Enfield, near the A10 (on the right side of it, ha ha) and things are very slow. We live in a new development that has always had good luck in terms of selling properties but now there are several on the market and we have had just 4 viewers in 7 weeks. We are not in a rush to sell but -- if prices are going to drop -- I would rather lower mine now before my neighbours do. Our estate agent has recommended a 4-5 percent drop in our asking price. The big question (since we can afford to hold on) is will the BoE cut interest rates toward the end of this year and will that help to prop the housing market back up on a more even keel? Hard call... not sure what our decision will be.