Skip to main content

First Post of 2010

As a preamble to my first property related piece of 2010 I wish Ginette and Christine at 'Yarn on the Square' good luck and best wishes as they are now trading from my old premises at 22 Market Place, Ely. Check them out at www.yarn-on-the-square.co.uk or better still pay them a visit for all your wool, needles, crochet hooks, stitch markers, knitting kits and workshops to learn new skills.

I have held onto my thoughts until January was over and we've reached the mid point of February.

January was, in my opinion, a worrying month. Most buying activity seemed to stall until thelast few days of the month. I have deliberately waited until now to make that comment as I would have been labelled 'negative'!

Why did it happen?


  • Stamp Duty threshold reversed to £125,000 from £175,000
  • VAT back to 17.5% from 15%
  • The weather!
I believe the major factor was the weather. Rightmove and our own website produced activity statistics that were more than 100% up over the month. The vast majority of viewings were 'virtual' rather than real until the snow receded and the buyers came out. This let us finish the month with a flourish and early February has been active also with more people arranging market appraisals on their home.

Just a little advice for those getting appraisals. Make sure that the agent(s) giving you advice has done some research into the local market and is prepared to leave the data with you. Pricing figures that are based on facts are always a lot more reliable than those based on wishful thinking. Telling you exactly what you want to hear may be pleasing initially but can mean a prolonged period 'on the market' and result in a lower achieved price in the long run or disappointment after losing the home you wanted to buy.

We always need more homes to sell - call us on Ely 665020 to start your 2010 home move.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

House builders discuss 95% mortgages with lenders

So the house builders and the lenders have had a meeting to discuss how they can create 95% mortgages. Basically a good thing, as you would imagine most estate agents would say. But what proportion of the housing Market is represented by new homes sales to first time buyers? Also any first time buyer who purchases a new home is then a cost to the second hand Market of who knows how many sales! If I think back 30 years my wife and I as first time buyers were providing a deposit of 10%. To do this we sold her car, saved up by not going out as much and generally committed ourselves to the task of buying our first home together. Ah, you might say, but house prices were so much cheaper then. True but my salary was just under £2,000 per annum with the prospect of perhaps another £1,000 in commission from selling at lease 6 houses per month personally. The first 4 didn't count towards commission but were to cover my costs to my employer! I personally don't think 95% mortgages are ...
3 comments
Read more

2012: What lays ahead for homes and property?

I’m writing this on 26th December which some might say is a bad time for predictions as the stomach is still churning and digesting yesterday’s Turkey dinner and copious mounts of alcoholic beverages. On the other hand it may focus my mind on whether the next 12 months are going to give any of us that ‘full’ feeling. The danger with property market predictions is that they are generalisations.  When the Halifax or Nationwide make their comments they are talking about the UK as a whole. When I make a prediction I’m talking about our particular little area of the country - incidentally East Cambridgeshire made it to No.4 in the ten best places to live in the UK http://bit.ly/vf0C4v (according to Simon Ward of www.lovemoney.com   using Halifax Quality of Life survey data, and who am I to doubt him!) The London market is buoyant with foreign investors buying and some reports will say that prices moved up even in the closing months of 2011.  The north of the country has over...
Post a Comment
Read more