Halifax -3.6% MOM - largest monthly fall ever?

[Van]

FROM SOMEPLACE in a parallel universe, far far away:

 

London Leads U.K. Home Prices to Two-Year High as Market Peaks, Groups Say

 

LOL. Our landlady has just trimmed £10k off the asking price of our flat -(3%). Still only had 1 viewing in the last 3 months, although another is due on Monday. These guys are way behind the curve. There's nothing remarkable about our flat; it is competing with many many other similar properties on the market. Good enough to rent but I wouldn't buy it for anywhere near the price she's asking. There are many other nicer flats for less.

 

Will keep you updated, but slippy prices are definitely back as sellers chase the market down.

[Mabon]

LOL. Our landlady has just trimmed £10k off the asking price of our flat -(3%). Still only had 1 viewing in the last 3 months, although another is due on Monday. These guys are way behind the curve. There's nothing remarkable about our flat; it is competing with many many other similar properties on the market. Good enough to rent but I wouldn't buy it for anywhere near the price she's asking. There are many other nicer flats for less.

 

Will keep you updated, but slippy prices are definitely back as sellers chase the market down.

 

I concur.

For leasehold purposes we had a couple of estate agents value our flat in June 2010.

 

We are negotiating a lease extension/ and/ or a lease buyout from the freeholder.

 

This week a surveyor came round to put a value on the property. Purpose being to clarify how much the lease extension should be - rather than the extortionate amount the freeholder's solicitors initially suggested.

 

Surveyor has just valued our flat at 17% less than June's two estate agent valuations.

 

On the one hand - from a lease extension pov - this means a cheaper lease extension.

 

However my girlfriend keeps talking about 'equity in the flat' etc.

 

I try to explain to her that it means nothing. That we should just see the place as a cheap rent (IO mortgage) from the bank but that is a touchy subject and usually involves daggers and huffery.

 

Prices slip-sliding in North-West Londinium.

[drbubb]

...Good enough to rent but I wouldn't buy it for anywhere near the price she's asking. There are many other nicer flats for less.

 

Will keep you updated, but slippy prices are definitely back as sellers chase the market down.

Will you make her an offer at "your" price

 

[Van]

Will you make her an offer at "your" price

 

I wouldn't buy this particular flat. There is too much about it that I don't like. My main gripe is that it's a basement flat so natural light is very poor (I believe you used to have a similar issue in your flat during your time in London, so perhaps you know what it is like). The heating and pipes need total re-doing, and there is no double-glazing. It is big for what it is, though, which is why we rented it in the first place. I would expect that in a year's time when we expect to buy something that there would be no shortage of very "keen" sellers.

[Van]

Has anyone considered the possibility that there might be some sot of aberration here? It's such a big number, perhaps we'll see rises from this next month?

 

I have to admit that I am startled at the size of the drop, considering that the key short-term drivers (interest rates and unemployment) have not been worsening; I was of the opinion that we would only get gradual monthly slippage without a jolt in these variables.

 

It may have something to do with more restrictive lending to BTL and self-cert, but anecdotally I think that these are not nearly as big a driver of the market as they used to be pre-2007.

I'm more interested in seeing if such a large monthly drop is also recorded in Nationwide and other indices. At the moment it's nothing more than a statistical outlier, regardless of the fairly generally accepted view that the market is dropping anyway.

[azazel]

I think everyone knows that houses are overpriced and that the countrys in debt, cuts are coming, jobs will be lost and pay will be cut. House prices are going down. My brother in law has been trying to sell for a while with few viewings, so he changing agents. The new agent thinks prices are going down and has recommended a drop in price and then further drops until a buyer can be found, and then negotiate the same sort of reduction on the house they buy. (I told them that ages ago but they wouldnt listen to me)

[drbubb]

I wouldn't buy this particular flat. There is too much about it that I don't like. My main gripe is that it's a basement flat so natural light is very poor (I believe you used to have a similar issue in your flat during your time in London, so perhaps you know what it is like).

I agree not to buy such a flat.

The saving grace of mine was the huge patio, which is why I was able to sell it at good price.

[Kurtz]

I agree not to buy such a flat.

The saving grace of mine was the huge patio, which is why I was able to sell it at good price.

 

Get a place in the country with a decent bit of land. Not in preparation for any end-of-world scenarios, just because it's very nice and more pleasant than claustrophobic city 'living'.

 

You're entire outlook on the world and life and everything will change.

[romans holiday]

Get a place in the country with a decent bit of land. Not in preparation for any end-of-world scenarios, just because it's very nice and more pleasant than claustrophobic city 'living'.

 

You're entire outlook on the world and life and everything will change.

Yes, I agree. I'm about to escape from high density living in the mega-city of Seoul in a few months time. Looking forward to those wide open spaces with the only noise being the sound of birds.

 

I think it's a coming of age sort of thing........ middle-age.

[Kurtz]

Yes, I agree. I'm about to escape from high density living in the mega-city of Seoul in a few months time. Looking forward to those wide open spaces with the only noise being the sound of birds.

 

I think it's a coming of age sort of thing........ middle-age.

 

I always lived on dirty old regen sites in caravans or in the site office until I was 34, hadn't lived in a house like a human being since I was 20.

 

It's pleasant. Yes, I wake to bird song every morning, the occasional tractor going up the adjacent clay road, the morning news read out over the village rediffusion by the village leader . . .

 

I recommend this.

[geisaver]

Was the drop so large because Lloyds/Halifax want some more QE? Are they trying to force it?

It must be easy to slip a few figures around month end/start to suit their agenda.

 

The timing stinks a bit on MPC day or failing that ahead of the more important November MPC.

 

 

[drbubb]

Over to GPC with this thread.

 

Let's see what interesting Property issue we can discuss next, as MAIN board's principle property featrure

[Newbear]

Over to GPC with this thread.

 

Let's see what interesting Property issue we can discuss next, as MAIN board's principle property featrure

 

According to Channel 4 News BTL is back, booming and in fact never went away:

 

http://www.channel4.com/news/how-buy-to-let-is-back

 

Seems that the nationalised/taxpayer bailed-out banks are channeling money into the BTL market.

[drbubb]

Seems that the nationalised/taxpayer bailed-out banks are channeling money into the BTL market.

ANOTHER great chance to lose money, and grab some quick bonuses before the losses show up.

 

It is all so predictable !

 

=== from a TV programme:

 

Among the guests was one of the most powerful bankers in Britain, Truett Tate, group executive director of Lloyds Banking Group.

 

In a surprisingly frank interview, he told me that despite the economic turmoil triggered by the banking crisis, the taxpayer should be delighted with its "investment" into his bank.

 

Mr Tate, who was the highest earning Lloyds director last year with £1.8m, said: "There are a whole lot of people, myself included, who would love to get the kind of return on their investment that the taxpayer has made into this bank.

 

"They've made an investment that is making money. If you could come up with me, with an investment in the infrastructure which would have returned more for the taxpayers, I'm all ears."

 

In response, Will Hutton told me: "The idea that the tax-payer is waiting for the chance to buy some cheap bank shares and we are going to make some tens of billions as a consequence of that once in a lifetime opportunity, is a rather odd way of looking at what took place.

 

"It will take twenty years to get back to where we would have been and the loss of output is over a trillion pounds."

=======================

 

If the "taxpayer makes a profit" so what?

The real problem is that taxpayers are being robbed of hundreds of billions or trillions, to allow that profit.

And fat bankers are stealing bonuses to make this happen.