Property transactions slide again, but are the public to blame for not taking agent pricing advice?

New Land Registry data shows an increasing decline in transactions.

The most up to date sales figures from the Land Registry show that property transactions completed in the UK last November fell by 11.3% to 82,398 when compared with November 2016.

This is up from the 8.5% decline registered annually for last October.

All parts of the UK experienced a decline. Sales in England were down 13% to 64,454, while Northern Ireland activity fell 8.8% o 5,501. In Wales, transactions slid 5.2% to 3,871 while Scotland saw a 1.9% fall to 8,572.

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London saw the biggest regional decline, with sales down 24.6% to 6,165.

Lee Pendleton, director at independent London estate agents James Pendleton, said: “Transaction levels are plummeting and it’s obvious why this is happening alongside robustly high valuations.

“The property market, particularly in London, is being hobbled by time-wasters who refuse to accept good advice.

“These sellers have no realistic prospect of finding a buyer because their expectations are so out of this world. They have done very well out of the housing market but they haven’t earned that money, they’ve just lived in those homes and watched the magic money tree grow. Now they think prices can only go up.

“The result is that transactions levels drop, the speed of chains slows down and life is made more difficult for everyone involved. No one wins.

“The resulting affordability problem means the cheaper end of the market can’t keep up with people’s unrealistic expectations and estate agents wind up wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds a year marketing property that won’t sell.

“We are in the business of selling homes, not beauty parading them in the faint hope of bagging a wild sales figure that defies the market. This is how you get the rounded topping out of prices that we’re seeing in this data, driven solely by low supply.”

The Land Registry data also showed house price growth has slowed from 5% to 4.9% between December and January, leaving average prices at £225,621 for the start of this year.

http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/property-transactions-slide-again-but-are-time-wasters-to-blame/