House Price Shock - again!

Another report in the Times today on the spectre of a house price crash.

I am amazed that there is so much shock horror at the fact that property doesn't always go up in value month on month. The problem is that we have got used to the ideal that you buy a property and it can't fail to increase in value! This is clearly not the case in any investment the is alway a downside as has been proven over the years. However saying all of that if you look at the long term growth of property for sale in London it is without doubt the most solid investment one can make and the benefit is, in most cases, we can also live in it and not pay tax on the profits.

I believe that there is still hard time ahead for the London property market and that prices will continue to fall, possibly for the next 18 month or so and maybe up to 20% in some areas with some desperate sellers. This doesn't nescessarily include prime central London however. There are still properties that are acheving good prices - we are seeing our first sealed bit today(the first for a long time through our Notting Hill sales office.

It has taken a long time for sellers to actually realise that the market has slowed and that they (sellers) are not completely in control. We have noticed over the last few weeks that vendors are now being reasonable and accepting offers that they poopooed months ago.

To sum up, buy now, buy well and the good news is that the market will come back and over a period of 3\5 years you should be looking at an real increase in value. Buyers now have a great deal more choice. Whilst London remains a world financial capital, strong demand will almost certainly mean that this choice will diminish over the next year as demand continues to remain very strong.

Gareth Jones
Managing Director, sales
Chard London Estate Agents