From time to time, a visitor to our little site will write to me with their own personal property selling tale. I wish more would do this as it’s fascinating to get real market comment from actual house sellers.

What thoses of you, out there in the trenches have to say, is so much more valuable compared to the usual “vested interests” talking-up their own agenda.

If you’d like to share your experiences with our readers, please don’t hesiate to email me; editor@theadvisory.co.uk

So today we have the musings of one Michelle Symonds who is selling a 4-bed family home (+£550K) near the centre of Maidenhead and looking to buy a 4-bed detached (+£650k) on the outskirts of the town or in the surrounding villages.

Over to you Michelle:

“It has been 4 years or more since the housing market in the UK was buoyant; now due to the on going economic crisis, the housing market is truly depressed. Many (mostly homeowners) like to believe it has merely stagnated and that prices have not truly fallen but they are not being realistic.

I have viewed a range of houses over the past year in a wide price bracket and there simply seems to be no consistency with the pricing. Clearly some sellers want to move quickly and are pricing their homes at relatively realistic prices but others seem to be asking prices that are astronomical (even by the standards of the South East). Because there is a shortage of good family homes here some people think they can ask a price that just doesn’t stack up compared with similar houses in the same area. The fact that my hometown is a real mix of house styles makes an exact comparison quite difficult – even on the same road houses can vary from two-up two-down Victorian terraces to detached 4/5 bed houses on large plots.

Estate agents, in their eagerness to secure the limited business around, seem willing to agree on any price the sellers believe their house should be worth. Perhaps they hope to gradually tick the price down to something more reasonable over time.

I recently saw a house go from £795,000 to £695,000 in just 2 drops over 4 months before it sold. But that seems to be a rare situation and I can only guess that the buyers had a need to sell quickly. There are still many more homeowners out there who refuse to accept that house prices have fallen. Consequently, many homes for sale are languishing on the market because they are over-priced but the problem is that such over-priced homes have a knock-on effect for other homes in the same area as homes are often “valued” by their owners in comparison to other, similar homes so it only takes a few homeowners to over-price their home and the rest follow suit. With expectations set at a particular level it is extremely difficult to persuade sellers to be more realistic.

I priced my home at what seemed a realistic level but was then offered massively lower amounts because everyone seems to be assuming that every house is optimistically priced. Putting the price up, however, has resulted in no offers – as my estate agent says “a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it”.

But selling my house is just one part of the problem – the other is buying a new home. Banks and building societies have reacted to the economic crisis by tightening lending criteria to the point where it is practically impossible to get a reasonable mortgage at a reasonable rate.

I’m not advocating a return to the lax lending criteria that got us in this mess in the first place but even with a 75% deposit (yes that’s the deposit), a decent salary, secure job and an excellent credit history some lenders’ affordability criteria mean I can only borrow 2.5 times my salary. Even by the standards of a previous generation that is a pretty low multiple.

Also the range of mortgage deals available has fallen in the time I’ve been looking, even though the base rate is an unbelievably low 0.5%. There don’t seem to be nearly as many tracker deals tracking that base rate anymore – I wonder why?

One thing I have discovered is that not all lenders will offer the same deal – many have their own different affordability criteria that they use for determining amounts they will lend as a mortgage. But they also seem to have some discretion on what they can lend if you get to talk to the right person so calling them is a much better bet than checking rates and applying online. I’m also considering using this mortgage broker (http://www.ennessprivate.co.uk/) in the hope they have access to deals not advertised to the general public. I’m just hoping that in another year’s time I’m not still in the same house.”

Just a quickie to everyone that’s written in asking where the regular blog posts have gone.

We’ve not shut-up shop, in fact we’ve been suffering from a Google Penalty. A particularly nasty affliction that led to halt in content production.

The good new is that we are nearly fixed and usual service will resume shortly.

Owning your own home is cheaper than renting, by an average of £200,000, according to a new study by Barclays.  It shows that over 50 years the typical cost of purchasing, maintaining and making mortgage payments on a home amounts to £429,000 compared with £623,000 in rent.

Chris Endsor, Chief Executive of Miller Homes, said: “This research supports the genuine message we have been giving prospective purchasers – buying your own home is still a very viable proposition and, when compared with the cost of renting, makes solid financial sense too.”

The research showed that whilst renting was initially cheaper, over time home owners soon began to reap the benefits of being an owner occupier, including long term financial security.

Chris added: “Taking the first step onto the property ladder can often seem like a huge financial commitment and the need for large deposits has had a detrimental effect in recent years. Miller Homes is committed to helping buyers with a range of purchase incentives and the recent launch of NewBuy across our developments in England has seen a return to mortgages where a smaller deposit is required.”

NewBuy has been designed to help overcome the large deposit gap for many potential homebuyers by enabling them to purchase a new build property with only a small deposit of 5-10 per cent.  Lenders participating in the scheme will then provide a 90-95 per cent loan to value mortgage for those who meet their qualifying criteria.

Although location is a key factor in the purchase of a home, the age and style of a property will have a financial impact too. Energy bills are on the rise whether you are a tenant or property owner and half the heat lost in a typical home is through walls and the roof.  More than 80 per cent of home energy used is for heating and hot water.

However, new homes are built to the latest environmental standards and are six times more energy efficient than older-style properties, making them an attractive option for home ownership.  In addition to impacting on day to day running costs, owning a newly-built property can also provide purchasers with peace of mind in relation to the financial sustainability of their investment.

“New homes are typically very efficient with the latest low energy, high output heating systems, windows and insulation fitted to ensure they remain efficient and cost effective,” said Chris. “This delivers further cost saving benefits for home owners as they can maximise their investment whilst reaping the rewards on a monthly basis.”

House prices could fall by 11 per cent, predicts Coutts – Her Majesty the Queen’s bank – as it turns bearish about the property market.

Commentators argue that Coutts’ analysis is more methodical than most. The bank considers five factors to assess the prospects for house prices – economic activity, valuation, liquidity, risk and momentum – and reckons that the negatives currently outweigh the positives for UK residential property.

Henry Lancaster, senior investment analyst at Coutts, said: “Economic activity is negative. With the economy in recession, unemployment rising and wage growth sluggish, the domestic economic environment is unsupportive for house buyers.

“Valuation appears expensive.  House prices have broadly kept track with the growth of nominal – that is, not adjusted for inflation -gross domestic product (GDP) – a measure of economic output – over the past 60 years, reverting back to trend after both booms and busts.  House prices are currently 11 per cent above their average value against nominal GDP.

“Our conclusion is that UK residential property appears unattractive as an investment. Prices appear to have been bid up by investors seeking ‘safe havens’ to preserve their wealth given record low interest rates. However, the UK residential property market is far from risk-free.”

Homes in the most beautiful parts of the countryside can ‘do the double’ by providing quality of life and proving the best investments, according to research by Lloyds TSB – which owns Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage provider.

It found that homeowners in England’s 32 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) have not only enjoyed the intangible benefits of living in some of the finest countryside but have also enjoyed house price increases much greater than the average for the rest of Britain during the last decade.

An AONB is defined as “a precious landscape whose distinctive character and natural beauty are so outstanding that it is in the nation’s interest to safeguard them” and these are designated by the National Association for AONB).

Land Registry house price data for these areas – including the Solway Coast, Kent Downs and Forest of Bowland – show the average value of property increased by more than £900 a month over the last 10 years.  That led to an average increase of  87 per cent – or nearly £110,000 – in the average AONB house price  during the decade from £125,860 in 2002 to £235,215 in 2012.  By contrast, the Halifax Price Index for Britain as a whole increased by 60 per cent from £101,133 to £161,937 over the same period.

Halifax reckons the average AONB house price is seven times higher than average gross annual earnings, compared to a price/earnings ratio of 4.9 in 2002.

With recent announcements of:

· Double dip recession in the economy.
· Inflation not slowing as hoped.
· Unemployment on the rise.
· Mortgage rates rising despite interest rates not increasing people are starting to really feel a real pinch on their wages and confidence, says Hometrack.  As a result, the current property market, which has been quite buoyant up to the summer, is likely to be fairly slow over the coming months and as such if you are looking at selling, either try to do so now, or hang on until the Spring of 2013 the company advises.

The company uses a variety of resources to assess what is happening in the current market and this data gives you some local information which can be useful when working out when to sell.

Hometrack tracks what is happening to demand and supply which is a key indicator in influencing what happens to property prices.  According to the company’s April data:-

· Time to sell a property is around six weeks in London and 12 weeks across the rest of the England.
· Buyers on average are offering 93 per cent of the advertised property price (for example, if a property is for sale for £100,000 they will offer around £93,000).
· The lowest offer versus advertised price is in the North East and is at 91 per cent, and the highest is 94.5 per cent in London.

From their analysis and taking into account the issues currently facing buyers and sellers, based on current market analysis, they “expect price rises to flatten out as we move into the summer.”

The number of mortgages approved fell by almost a third in April 2012 to just 36,000 as fears over the impact of the euro debt crisis continue to dampen confidence, according to some analysts.

This has triggered fears that house prices could fall sharply by the end of the year.

The Council of Mortgage data (CML) reported that mortgage advances for house purchases fell in April, particularly among first time buyers.

The slowdown in mortgage advances was particularly marked among first-time buyers -down 48 per cent month-on-month and 12 per cent year-on-year to 12,600.

Significantly, there was also a drop of 15 per cent month-on-month in mortgage advances to home owners, although they were up 3 per cent year-on-year at 23,400.

Howard Archer at Global Insight said that house prices will fall 3 per cent this year but it could get worse: “The danger that house prices could fall even more than this is being lifted by the increased downside risks to the UK economic outlook, particularly coming from the problems in the Eurozone centred on Greece and Spain.”

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the number of loans lent on properties costing between £125,000 and £250,000 fell by 70 per cent in April compared to the previous month, due in part to the end of the stamp duty holiday.

Economists said that the fall demonstrates just how precarious the property market is and predicted that house prices will fall this year.

The Government had exempted properties priced between £125,000 and £250,000 from the 1 per cent sales tax in an effort to boost sales at the bottom end of the housing market. The stamp duty holiday, which ran from 2010 to March 31 this year, saved the average buyer around £1,800.

The CML said that the number of mortgages lent specifically to first-time buyers between March and April dropped by 48 per cent in April due to the policy ending.

Total mortgage lending in April fell by over £2 billion to £5.3 billion compared to the previous month.  The number of home loans made was 36,000, down from 51,600 in March.

Paul Smee, director general of the CML, said that April’s sharp decline was “expected” after the stamp duty holiday finished.  However he said that mortgage lending to first time buyers is likely to remain subdued in the coming months.

“Given the economic uncertainty, any significant pick up in lending in the coming months seems unlikely,” said Mr Smee.

Property prices in London’s most sought-after postcodes have risen steadily over the past couple of years, as investors have moved funds out of assets held in euros to buy into what is seen as a “safe haven” alternative.

Foreign money seeking a refuge from the wider economic turmoil accounted for 60 per cent of acquisitions of prime central London property between 2007 and 2011, according to a report by Fathom Consulting for Development Securities.

If the shared currency broke up completely, London property would initially be boosted by the continued flight towards a safe haven, the report predicts.

But, once the break-up had taken place, demand for these assets as an insurance against this event would start to ebb.

“Although fears about a messy end to the euro debt crisis may account for much of the gain in prime central London (PCL) prices that has taken place over the past two years, we find that a break-up of the single currency area is also the single greatest threat to PCL,” said the researchers.

“In our judgment, a collapse of the single currency area could ultimately produce a 50 per cent fall in the value of PCL property.”

But the logic of the situation could still work out in London’s favour: if the euro collapses, the pound would be even more of a safe haven.  And meanwhile, money is also flowing into the capital from countries affected by the Arab spring.

My Home Move Ltd has reported a profit for the financial year to end December 2011, marking a return to profit following a difficult 2010.

The Directors’ report and financial statements announced a profit of £994,000, which shows that the company has bounced back from 2010 where a loss of £980,000 was reported.

The report highlights a busy year for the company, where despite the housing market remaining steady, My Home Move’s average direct market share, on cases fully processed by the company, increased by 18 per cent.  The average total market share for My Home Move was 2.86 per cent, which means the company claims to be market leader.

During 2011 the company completed conveyancing cases in every postcode area in England and Wales.

In the first quarter of 2011 My Home Move rolled out its e-conveyancing system, eWay to over 70 per cent of its new clients.  eWay provides a secure online case file, and allows clients to read and complete key forms and documents online, upload documents to their case file, make online payments securely, and use SMS messages to communicate.  It can be accessed from PCs and smartphones.

In 2011 the company completed over 10,000 transactions through eWay and the company was awarded the Mortgage Finance Gazette (MFG) Award 2012 for Innovator of the Year.