Edenvale UK Property Management

Source: Estate Agent

Asking prices on Rightmove dropped for the third month in a row, the portal reported this morning.

The average asking price of a property new to the market is now £234,858, down from August’s £236,260. Property coming to the market is £11,000 cheaper than it was three months ago.

Despite the 0.6% monthly drop, asking prices are still – just – ahead of last year, by 0.7%.

More interestingly, asking prices are unchanged from five years ago. In September 2007, the month of the run on Northern Rock, they stood at £235,176.

Miles Shipside, housing market analyst at Rightmove, said: “This year’s extended summer holiday period has left new sellers’ asking prices almost the same as a year ago and, intriguingly, five years ago too.

“In truth, the state of the housing market is little different now to this time last year, and prices have stagnated as neither buyers or sellers have been forced to change their behaviour in sufficient quantities to stimulate greater activity.

“However, back in 2007, few would have believed that house prices would still be the same in five years’ time.

“This would have been in the context of the previous five-year period to 2007 seeing an average rise of 55%.

“Equally hard to predict would be the extreme changes the housing market has undergone.

“While the average new seller’s asking price has remained virtually the same since September 2007, market conditions are much changed. They are patchy and localised and vary markedly for the many different buyer and seller segments.”

He said that credit crunch winners included home owners in London, where prices have shot up 18.7% in the last five years to stand at £456,237, and cash-rich house buyers.

Credit crunch losers included people in the North, those trying to down-size to release equity for retirement, people with insufficient equity or in negative equity who were unable to fund their next move, and tenants wanting to buy but unable to save for a deposit.

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In connected moves this morning, it was announced that the Property Misdescriptions Act is to be repealed and the Estate Agents Act is to be amended.

The amendment of the EA Act 1979 means that new entrants will be able to operate within estate agency without having to comply with the legislation.

Source: The Estate Agent Today

The change, which will 'help home owners privately advertise and sell their houses', comes as part of the Red Tape Challenge being carried out by Vince Cable's BIS department.

A consultation on the proposed change, which will allow online agents and the likes of Tesco to operate in the market, was held this summer, but very few knew about it.

The Government said of the amendment that it will ensure that new business models 'do not face disproportionate costs as a result of regulations intended for traditional agents'.

Consumer Affairs Minister Jo Swinson said this morning: "A flourishing housing market is hugely important to the economy . . . These intermediaries help buyers and sellers contact each other at a low cost but don't engage in other estate agent activities, so it's unfair to expect them to go out and check all the property details of all the sellers on their websites."

Also this morning, the Government has announced that it will repeal the Property Misdescriptions Act. Instead, traditional agents will be bound by other legislation.

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Source: Estate Agent Today

The housing crisis in Britain is the worst in a generation, MPs have been told.

During a Commons debate on housing, shadow housing minister, Jack Dromey accused Downing Street itself of having manufactured the homes crisis.

He said: “The facts are stark: house building is down, homelessness is up, private rents have hit record highs, and we have a mortgage market in which people struggle to get mortgages.

“The latest Government figures tell us that fewer than 100,000 homes were started in the 12 months to June, which is a 10% decrease on the previous 12 months and amounts to fewer than half the 230,000 new households being formed every year.”

He reminded the Commons that two years ago, then housing minister Grant Shapps had said: “Building more homes is the gold standard upon which we shall be judged.”

But, said Dromey, the collapse in the house building industry had been catastrophic.

He said: “We meet regularly some of the major developers and building companies, and they all say the same thing. They have planning permission for in excess of 300,000 sites, and the figure is rising, but they simply do not feel that they can proceed, not least because of the state of the economy and the mortgage market.”

Dromey said that homelessness had risen and that, contrary to claims made by both David Cameron and Shapps, private rents had not fallen.

Prisk said that the Government is now “focused on getting houses built, providing more affordable homes and making sure that home ownership is affordable once again”.

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