Huge uncertainty in the London property market has been revealed by Reuters.
The news agency reports that out of 22 ‘property experts’, all said prices in London were over-valued, but their forecasts for the next three years ranged from a 17.5% drop to a 9% rise.
Reuters reported: “Five estate agents said sales had effectively ground to a halt in the second quarter due to the uncertainty about Britain’s planned withdrawal from the European Union, combined with higher property taxes and a slowing economy.
“There’s a lack of confidence in the housing market. ‘We are just not seeing sales,’ said an estate agent in central London, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation for his firm’s business.”
Agents also told Reuters that overseas investors – who bought almost one in every five new-build homes in London last year – are now far more cautious, adding to the “weak market”.
One agent, in Wimbledon, also said that non-British EU people are putting off buying a property after their employers shortened their contracts, due to uncertainty over their status in Britain after it leaves the EU in 2019.
LonRes, the data firm, has said that over half the properties taken off the market so far this year were withdrawn, not sold.
Someone being honest the market is not good
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An honest estate agent? A dangerous precedent, surely…? (ducks/ kidding…)
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Isn’t this as hard as the normal market has ever been? (Excluding the financial crisis)
Government meddling on all levels with stifle the market more, and we all know what happens when houses stop selling.
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In some ways worse than ’08. Supply so low in my patch fees have dwindled to the unsustainable, over valuation still rife despite the cooling market. Sellers unmotivated to be commercial on price unless any urgent driver (divorce/probate etc), buyers wanting a roaring deal. At least in ’08 sellers took your advice and paid a sensible fee.
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Forgive me briefly touching on politics however as we stagger rudderless towards Fecksit is it any wonder that we see more and more signs of gloom
I don’t care which political party is in power however I do care that the UK voted on incomplete, or worse still, downright misleading information & stats/figures
We stand staring down the barrel of Europe, and we appear absolutely clueless
There are very bitter winds ahead and unfortunately we are completely helpless
I truly wonder why the UK Government and all the political parties didn’t find a way to negotiate with Europe, instead the giant rattle was thrown from the pram and we are now seeing the calamity unfolding
I wish it was a dream, however sadly it is reality, we are bystanders in the biggest slow motion car crash in history, with a clueless collective driver, and we powerless to intervene
We had a recovering/growing economy, now it is just wasting away
The property industry better buckle up
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“I truly wonder why the UK Government and all the political parties didn’t find a way to negotiate with Europe, instead the giant rattle was thrown from the pram and we are now seeing the calamity unfolding”
Not followed things for the last few years? Its because of the EU’s inability to show any kind of flexibility in negotiations with member states, along with their imperialist attitude that many like me voted out. We can keep talking things down or look at the bigger picture.
There may be some industries shaking a bit due to lack of their own confidence, but the property market in London and large parts of the SE is -IMO- unsustainable at current prices and is due a correction.
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I actually wonder if some Muppet in Government might think that reducing this country to a shadow of it’s former self might help.
It might even be true in a weird way. Let me put my lecturer’s gown on and explain…
Country goes backwards several decades, loads of Europeans leave reducing population and housing pressures.
Property values head downwards, foreign investment in the UK declines, and non-Europeans leave, further reducing population and housing pressures.
House prices come back in to line with sensible lending for the masses.
Rental market becomes less cut-throat as there are more properties available.
The question is, can we maintain our position on the GDP per Capita Adjusted PPP scale:
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp-per-capita-ppp
If we can then Brexit is a GREAT idea, but I really doubt it.
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Uncertainty has always been the biggest problem in the housing market.
I’ve spent 25 years hearing the phone go quiet every election (or referendum) for them to get back to normal straight after.
People do not like change – even if the change is “Same old, same old”.
For some insane reason that I cannot fathom, the older generation (in general) decided to ruin the lives of their grandchildren. The grandparents will not be alive to see the real pain of Brexit, assuming of course that it happens at all.
I have a theory – the delightful Theresa May, in her memoirs, will admit that she made a complete mess of it on purpose to ensure that everything was so horrible that a final referendum can be called to vote on “Should We Stay or Should We Go” and we’ll all be desperate to apologise to the Europeans and beg to stay in.
Here’s hoping at least.
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The older generation also had their opportunity to vote in the early 1970’s referendum to join the EU, but like many corporate services what you think you’re signing up turns out to be very different in the long term. Young, mid-aged and the old all voted and the slim majority voted for change…..just wish that the politicians would now get on with it!
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From what I can tell (and this is my opinion formed from observation and a little bit of digging rather than provable fact) a lot of the older generation voted to leave for one of two reasons:
1. Outright racism – sometime polite, sometimes not, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes not – but it was remarkable the number of people who would result to something like “coming over here and taking our jobs” when I proved their other arguments to be incorrect
2. “The EU we have today is not what I voted for” – which is a remarkable statement – of course not – my goodness in 1973 the whole world was a completely different place, so of course it’s different – I could never get anyone to understand this basic concept though.
The other thing I discovered is what I call the “Millennials Dirty Little Secret” – lots of them talked about voting but a lot of them didn’t blinking bother. 75% of the millennials that did vote, voted to stay but only 36% turned up…
Apparently, polling data showed this:
age group / turnout
18-24: 36%
25-34: 58%
35-44: 72%
45-54: 75%
55-64: 81%
65+: 83%
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I put my hand up as an ‘oldie’ who voted to stay in – because I believe it would have been better for my children’s futures. My head ruled my heart.
As one who voted to join the Common Market in the 1970s I know that way back then I was lied to. And I have been lied to again in 2016/17.
I voted to join a group of trading nation states. I did not vote for the grand EU plan of total integration of those states. Yes, I know it was there, hidden in the small print back in the 70s. But we didn’t know about it back then and the politicians – especially Heath – lied through their teeth about what we were voting for.
Fast forward to last year and we were faced with the utterly shameful stupidity of David Cameron giving us the Referendum with a simple majority to decide. What a dreadful price to pay for the years of Conservative infighting over Europe!
On both sides the argument politicians and pontificators lied, lied and lied again to us about what it means to leave or remain. Collectively they are the most mendacious bunch of short-termist t*ssers it has been my misfortune to come across in my lifetime.
I know the leavers will scream ‘You are going against the will of the people!’ but I will support any political party that gives us the right to vote again on the issue WITH THE TRUE FACTS laid out for our consideration.
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Well said AgencyInsider,
Having worked for many years in the NHS the worst thing for me was the the political broadcast illustrating how much better the NHS would be if we left the EU. Watch it here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtlGN8wVnis
There is absolutely no way that the present government were ever going to divert huge amounts of EXTRA money into the NHS….. because they don’t believe in it….thinking instead we should have a privatised service that we all have to pay insurance for, which will cost the state far less.
This was the biggest shambolic deceiving outrageous claim ever made in the history of British politics as far as I was concerned. If nothing else you only have to watch the video to know the scale of lies that were being perpetuated in propaganda.
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I wanted to stay in because of three reasons;
1). Optimism – I wanted my children to have the same opportunities that I had always had, including being able to travel freely and live in Europe if they so desire.
2). Pessimism – I feared if we came out that uncertainty would affect the economy/living standards and many jobs would be lost.
3). I didn’t for one moment trust our politicians to be able to negotiate a reasonable deal, when many of them seem motivated by their own political futures than what is right and best for the country as a whole.
I suspect the whole thing will be a continual calamitous mess until the majority of the population don’t really want Brexit anymore. Will we still be exiting at that point?
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I believe the whole thing will be an intentional calamitous mess so that when the inevitable re-vote comes (which it will) then the British people can vote the correct way as the elite demands, and we’ll remain in the EU. What fun.
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