Nationwide On Today Programme

[uro_who]

'Great news for house prices' said the un-biased business presenter, 'estate agent have had a big increase in new buyers, lets talk to the Nationwide to get their analysis on the housing market';

'buyers need to be careful, a rising market won't bail them out'

'many lenders have too many bad debts on their books'

'future is uncertain for interest rates and the economy'

'house prices will remain flat at best for the next 12 months'

sounded bearish to me.

[apom]

Let me get this right..

The presenter did their sheeple "I have become very rich on paper.. arent house prices great" bit..

and the nationwide turned bearish.

[non-FTBer]

Yeah, heard this on my way to work.

Wasn't quite bearish, but shot down any kind of positivity nonetheless.

The nationwide man was very much an on-the-fence kind of guy. Had nothing positive to say about the market (other than that they were confident that their loan balance was safe and that they had 4% lower late payments than last year), but all he predicted was a fragile economy and that this would cause stagnation....... hmmmm.

[Guest Charlie The Tramp]

Replay

Business 7.21 am

Nationwide Interview

[Randall Herbert]

I heard it too.

quite an amazingly level headed unbiased report from the Nationwide.

the introduction to the piece was a quite the opposite, therefore the pleasant surprise to hear what he had to say.

I'd say a significant turning point in all important sentiment has been reached with his statement.

Prices can only keep on falling now.

[uro_who]

I agree, I was expecting spin from the NW and it was the contrast with the Beeb and my expectation that amazed me.

Glad to see that the first thing that most of us do when we get to work is check HPC!

[karhu]

LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The UK's biggest customer-owned bank, Nationwide Building Society, reported a 14 percent rise in interim profit on Thursday and said it expected its gross mortgage sales to remain flat in 2006 due to stagnant house prices.

"This year we have had zero house price inflation, and we expect that to continue for the next 12 months. We have adopted a purposively cautious approach to mortgage lending ... but we expect our profitability to continue to do well," Chief Executive Philip Williamson told Reuters

"Far from being a building society purely focused on mortgages and savings, we are now competing very effectively in the current account, credit card and personal loan markets."

Evidence that they're about to bail out and reduce their exposure before the storm.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/investing/finan...DE-UPDATE-1.XML

Edited November 17, 2005 by karhu

[zorn]

I heard it too.

quite an amazingly level headed unbiased report from the Nationwide.

the introduction to the piece was a quite the opposite, therefore the pleasant surprise to hear what he had to say.

I'd say a significant turning point in all important sentiment has been reached with his statement.

Prices can only keep on falling now.

What do you mean, "keep on" falling? There haven't been any significant falls to "keep on" with.

[non-FTBer]

Zorn,

16 months of falls according to Hometrack in my area.

OK, most of them have been in the region of <0.5% per month.

But recently the falls are in the magnitude of 1.4% per month (for October 2005).

If they stay at the same rate (they will increase and decrease IMHO, probably between 0.5% and 2% depending on the time of year) then this would result in falls of 15-16% in a year.

Hometrack also say that the price paid against asking has fallen from 97-98% in early 2004 to 90% of asking now. This in itself is a fall of 7-8% driven purely by sentiment.

I also suspect that only houses which are good value already are being looked at. Anyone who is asking 2004 prices and adding on more for HPI is just sitting on the market.

[Randall Herbert]

What do you mean, "keep on" falling? There haven't been any significant falls to "keep on" with.

Errr....mm.......

Houseprices have been falling in the UK for well over a year now Zorn. Are you not keeping up with the actual situation on the ground outside the skewed results that get pandered in the media by the increasingly nervous Vested parties??

You ought to keep up with the FACTS Zorn. House prices are still FALLING across the UK on the whole.

You err.....don't have a BTL property portfolio to keep afloat by any chance? Capital depreciating day by day bay day by day.

Must be hard.

I'm afraid posting continual nonsense on this web site is not going to make housprices reverse in direction and start rising again.

I don't suppose you have any 'evidence' to the contrary by any chance? Or is this just a ususal Troll 'Hit & Run' post?

didn't think you did

[KerPlunk]

Website reporting similar sentiment

Nationwide sees flat house prices

Unveiling its interim results, Nationwide said that its share of the net mortgage market had dropped to 8.3% in the six months to September, from 13.7% last year.

[mustrum_ridcully]

I think the most telling thing from the Nationwide is the following:

Unveiling its interim results, Nationwide said that its share of the net mortgage market had dropped to 8.3% in the six months to September, from 13.7% last year.

However, the lender said it expected its share of the UK market to rise again to about 9% by the end of the year.

"We have adopted a purposively cautious approach to mortgage lending... but we expect our profitability to continue to do well," said Mr Williamson.

"Purposively cautious approach to mortgage lending..." hmm me thinks that despite all the spin they know what's really going with the economy and therefore are tightening up on lending. What it also shows it that there are plenty of irresponsible mortgage lenders out there...

[Marina]

What do you mean, "keep on" falling? There haven't been any significant falls to "keep on" with.

Well there have where I live.

Developer builds flats - puts them on the market for 230k. They don't sell many. I walk in - woman offers them to me for 200k without even asking. Is that a price fall?

Have a look here.

A particular house

There is a house on there called Brambletyne - or something like that. It was on the market for ages and ages at £565k. It sold for £469k. Is that a price fall? Compared to what it went the previous time it sold it would be a price rise.

There are also 4 flats in St. Sebastian's Court.

First one went for 265k in July 2004.

Most recent one went for 215k in July 2005.

They have been finished since Apring 2004.

4 of them are still not sold but appear to be occupied - a while ago a forest of To Let boards went up - presume the developer gave up trying to sell and has rented them.

From where I am sitting prices being achieved are anything between 10% and 20% below what they were 2 years ago.

It might be different in your area - property has huge regional variations.

But these falls will not register as price falls because most properties will still be selling at prices above last time they sold. I still don't understand how house price rises or falls are measured.

There is still plenty of overpriced property on the market. If you want to buy you have to hunt out the ones that have been on for a while who have motivated sellers.