Property market still falling
Written by JDPGlobal | Wednesday, 29 June 2005
There seems to be no end to the recession that has hit the UK housing market as average prices fell for a 12th consecutive month by a 0.2% across the country. This means that the average price of a house is £161,600 now as compared to £167,700 before.
This is probably why market activity is on the up with sales agreed gaining 3.5% as compared to 7.6% rise in May, which is attributed to buyer’s coming into the market. Experts view the present scene as a buyer’s market.
With oversupply and wider choice benefiting buyers, it is no surprise that buyers are able to negotiate better discounts to the asking prices, with the average up 0.1% to touch 93.6%. Understandably, the time taken to sell a house has gone up to 7.6 weeks from 7.4 weeks in May, while a year ago houses were generally on the market for just 4.2 weeks.
Surprisingly though, the number of viewings has remained stable at 12.5 for each property coming to market. Only one county has managed to register a price rise and the drop of first time buyers has also hit the stalling market.
To make matters worse, the interest rate cuts that have been long expected, do not seem coming for some more months.
