Buzzy--Bee

Just getting Estate Agents round to value our property here in the UK, they're all saying the market is really good and there are loads more buyers than properties. You expect agents to say this sort of thing, but it does seem to be true. The number of people on this board who seem to be having positive selling experiences mirrors this.

Today I get an auto-generated email from Realestate.com.au indicating that the market is improving in Oz too. I was hoping it would hold off a bit as I don't want to get caught "off the property ladder" in a rising market.

Can anyone share their opinions and experiences?

Cheers

Buzzy

touchingcloth

Where'ya from Buzzy? Here in Reading..I'm gonna be putting up for sale in the next few weeks....and its difficult to gauge an asking price..as it seems hardly anything has been going on the market this year so far.

Can't comment on how many people are looking though.

TC

Buzzy--Bee

I'm in North West Middlesex.

Cheers

Buzzy

Hutch

I'm in a very similar situation mate. Ours went on the market yesterday and we have a viewing on Thursday (that's before the particulars sheet is even written up!), so we'll see how things work out. I had four agents round and they all talked the market up (go figure ), but it never really sank here - just plateau'd for a while. We've priced the house at a fair price, a long way from what a couple of agents suggested putting it on at and we're hoping people realise that. It also helps being chain-free, of course. I'm regularly in touch with four real-estate agents in the area of Oz we're moving to, and it's certainly continuing to be a buyer's market there - prices have fallen by about 40k and there's no immediate sign of it picking up which suits us. It is of course very regional and I'm sure it's a different story in WA or QLD.

Wol

We're not so very far from where you're going, and the market here is certainly not booming!

We have been here for 18 months looking - several agents have said that we know more about the local area than they (what an admission <g>) - and we see the same properties being offered for 20 - 25% less than a year ago, and still not selling. Because they are still overpriced.

The "technique", for want of a less polite term, seems to be put it on the market for an outrageous sum, wait and see if a sucker will bite, then in a couple of months put it with another agent as a new listing at a couple of hundred thousand less. And so on....

With interest rates going up if anywhere I wouldn't worry too much about being "left behind" - it could benefit you!

touchingcloth

Where are you moving to in Oz?
Also...when you say prices have dropped 40K....what value property is that on...and in which timefram have they fallen by 40k?

Thanks
TC

Hutch

We're moving to South Coast NSW, about 90km south of Sydney. We started looking at the price of property about two years ago, once we'd decided to make the move. The South Coast area is increasingly popular and property prices there have been some of the most over-valued in the state. When we started looking, our 400K budget would get us a smallish 3 bedder on about a 600m2 block, now that same budget will get us something like a four bedder with double-garage on a 700m2 block in a nicer area! We've seen several houses we liked the look of, initially put on the market for 470K, sit on the agents books for six months and more, then get remarketed at as much as 50K to 70K less. Some of the property round there is massively over-priced, and as I said, there's not much sign of the upward curve beginning.

sassenach

the property market is booming big style here in perth with values going up by 20% in parts and our house which we have just sold went for 20% more than it was valued at at xmas ,west australia is only catching up with eastern staters after their boom a few years ago ,they reckon here its got another 12 months to run before a correction as has happened in sydney .But with 35000 eastern staters coming here every year plus the migrants to the west and the resources boom in china could well see it going longer .We are returning to the uk and the market seems pretty stagnent but that may have something to do with us going to poole as properties seem to stay on th emarket quiet awhile according to the website rightmove but i personally think the uk and australia in general are due for a major correction the only question is when as affordability levels are well out of the range of new home buyers so really a lot is just investor driven once they move their money else where a price drop is immenent .I have read somewhere the australian market is the most overpriced in the western world at the moment and with affordability levels at 6.2 here in perth i can see why

Amazulu

Trying to predict property prices at the moment is difficult if not impossible. I think:
WA is going to continue growing in the short to medium term & then stabilise. The economy here is still strong. Houses are still cheaper than other parts of Australia yet salaries here are good,
The east coast will pick up in a few years,
The UK market has been talked down for longer than I can remember & it still hasn't crashed & I don't think it will. The fundamentals of the UK economy are still sound.

iPom

My FIL in Sydney says that the market has stabilised and property prices have fallen slightly.

He recommends renting for a few months before jumping into the buying pool so we can guage the market, which I think is probably a good idea.

suzy

After trawling through our preferred suburbs we have been really surprised at the rise in house/land prices in Perth in such a short time. A piece of land in Currambine is being marketed at $300K (private sale) whereas last year when we looked around the same suburb we saw much the same land for $160K (offered through a developer).

Amazulu

Perth is a bit crazy at the moment. It can't go on forever, but it can go on for a while. Luckily we bought in the lull that happened towards the end of last year, We could have made a lot more on the exchange rate blip that has happened recently but we would have ended up paying $10-15k for our house. Since the new year it's gone mad. It's a tough call whether to get into the market or hold off. I'm tending towards the positive outlook for the market.

suzy

You were lucky

It will be at least a year before we buy as we haven't got visas yet so maybe time for things to level out.

sassenach

i would agree the uks economy is fundamentally sound but with affordability level s out of sinc with wages where is the new money going to come from to keep building and buying ,i have seen all this before in the late eighties when everyone thought it was going to go on for ever ,people were rich on paper and borrowing to the hilt to fund more extravagent lifestyles on the strength they had a whole heap of cash in their properties what people dont realise this money has to be paid back at some point ,both here and the uk people are in debt up to their eyeballs i assure you it will be paid back some how , but the longer the boom the longer the pain

Olibeneli

Hi Hutch

I seen a nice house in Kiama.......marketed for $640k but had offers just over and just under $600k apparently........we have nothing to sell as we are renting so..........do we wait and see or offer $600k ???.....

As you say, it is a buyers market here right now.