Despite the latest land registry figures showing the first positive housing market growth for over a year of 0.1 per cent, Property Portfolio Rescue said the UK market is still going nowhere.
“House sales volumes are down 75 percent on the summer average sales over the last decade and are even 50 per cent down on last summer,” said Nick Hopkinson, director of PPR.
“If current sales trends continue most people will only be moving house once every 30 years. Behind the data, we are seeing a market divide between prime location sellers who are attracting offers due to lack of selling competition and prices continuing to fall for all other types of property,” he added.
This makes looking at monthly price trends almost meaningless, he said, as long as the mortgage market continues to effectively close out potential buyers.
“Unemployment is rising daily, the wider recession continues to get worse and tax rises with lower public spending are inevitably on the way next year. It is hard to see any sustained house price recovery against this backdrop in the next year, even for prime properties,” he said.
Nicholas Leeming, director of propertyfinder.com, said: “Resurgent interest from buyers has been a shot in the arm for the housing market in recent months - but this can only take the recovery so far.”
He added: “The Chancellor has been banging banking heads together over lending to companies, but mortgage borrowers need to be allowed in on the act too. It’s essential the monetary taps are kept on full flow to boost the housing market and the wider economy.”
The June data from Land Registry shows a reduced annual house price movement of -14 per cent, up by 0.1 per cent from last month.
However as the monthly increase is only 0.1 per cent, the movement does not signal a return to solid growth, but rather flattening prices, said the Land Registry.
The average house price in England and Wales is now £153,046.
Comments
The only way to get the property market to recover is to focus on increasing transactions and transactions will not rise, and be sustained, until prices have fallen by another -30% or so. The cost of high house prices has been the worst recession since the 1930s and unemployment for millions of people. To get this country back on its feet property prices will need to fall dramatically.
I totally agree Russell. As a broker in the North East I'm finding sales are increasing and prices are stabilising and actually rising in some areas. I'm sick and tired of column inches being given to propoganda merchants who are looking to profit from others misery. This publication should be ashamed. Voice of the industry, have a word with yourself!
Note to the person in the top right hand corner of this website: Victoria Hartley, Editorial Director, The Voice of the Industry?! Listen to the mortgage brokers, (are we not the targetted audience?), why do you keep allowing all this negative propaganda which can only serve to drive our industry down? is there some form of affiliation here? Everyone else wants to get on with things and get this country back on it's feet like it should be doing. Until certain people stop predicting further price crashes then banks won't dare raise LTV's again and so they are continuing to fuel the situation. mmmmmmmmm.
I also agree with Russell i think people like Mr Hopkinson should keep there mouths shut for a while. He is no doubt hoping that the market will continue to fall, i'm sure he has a vested interest somewhere along the line. You also cant use a broad brush approach to the markets, some areas will no doubt do better than others. Lets be positive in this Country for once, every time something good seems to be happening someone else comes along and talks it down again, we seem to do that with everything in this Country - time for a change i feel including this Government
The market has yet to crash! Just wait until the winter - it'll start then - with a vengence...
Absolutely spot on Russell. Property Portfolio Rescue have a vested interest in the recession as they buy properties undervalue from desperate people. During the past year I have noticed several similar articles written by Mr Hopkinson on this and other sites ever since the market began to pick up, whose blatant aim is to keep the market down with all this negative reporting. By the way, the self fulfilling prophecy has already happened thanks to such media, see my response to the article on 12th February in the archives.
The number of house sales and house prices are two different things - It is a combination of the lack of new property coming onto the market and low interest rates that are stopping prices falling further. For prices / sales to start recovering we need to go through this flat period in which confidence in property as an investment can start returning to the market.
Give Mortgage Brokers the same good rates as banks for loans around 85 to 90% LTV and we will help the estate agents get the houses shifted. FACT!
Higher sales volumes, not prices, are what's needed (for the mobility of labour and the incomes of brokers, solicitors, etc).
For as long as the supply of property onto the market is stifled by sellers' stubborn refusal to sell for less than they think it's worth, volumes will remain low, delaying the price corrections necessary. Once the house price bubble has fully deflated, we can then expect lenders to return.
This is absolute garbage ! Sales at our company, one the Norths largest estate agents are UP 75% yoy. Presume Mr Hopkinson is one of these predatory buyers of forced sales preying on those in a vulnerable position who wants to perpetuate a collapsing market.
Why don’t we as an industry focus on the positives? If we continue with negativity like this it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy