oh how sad - believing an estate agent

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23668507

By the way,I hope you've found something a little more amenable to your own requirements for the coming Winter, Dom.

Last Winters repetitive doom and gloom, dismal reports seemed akin to an excerpt from Scott of the Antarctic.

Maybe they could make you a special case and double your WFA.

Forgive me if I've got the wrong impression, but has Winter set in a little early down your way.

So who do you believe?

Every time a bit of good news comes from the UK that may or may not be accurate you attack it.

Property prices in Spain have fallen by more than the UK since 2008.
If Spanish estate agents and media posted similar reports seen to those in the UK the response would be " what a load of rubbish etc etc " to put it mildly.
Why should a UK estate agent be anymore reliable than a Spanish one.
The only acurate figures are those from the UK land registery that records house sales . anythnig else is just marketing hype.

The UK figures I quoted were from the Land Registry.

Actually Spanish Agents have been reporting regularly during the last few years that the market had bottomed/selling like hotcakes stuff...seen some links on here

I wouldn't take the word of an Estate Agent in any country.

so you are that naive that you do believe what an estate agent tells you, you must be what their dreams are made of

I can introduce you to some in Spain, English of course, who will only tell you what you want to hear, leaving you to wonder how you bought an illegal property - just give me the nod when you want their details.

I am always pleased to see/hear of good news for the UK, it is only natural as an Englishman.
What I attack is the manner in which some people try to leverage that good news to force feed the differences within Spain.
Funny, there don't seem to be the same eager knocking in BE Italy or France or Malaysia or elsewhere

You quoted the areas where prices were up but ignored those where they were down.
Yes things are better but still not at the pre crisis levels which is when the majority of mortgages were taken out.
Negative equity is still a major problem for many thousands.
10.7 % return on rent.If only, we would be out of here like a shot. . In the real world 5-6% Gross.
We have local estate agents talking up the market because of the proposed major contruction projects that have not ven got approval yet a process which could take years.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. but its still a very long tunnel.

Well obviously the ones ignored haven't risen

I also gave a link which showed a graph which showed that only Scotland and Wales have not reached 2008 levels.

Jackytoo.

I accept that life in the Surrey bubble may be different but if our prices locally and in the SW and Wales had reached even 90% of 2008 levels you would hear the cries of delight.
Reductions in estate agents windows still ounumber those with a sold tag.
There is a danger that yet again the house proce bubble in a few areas of the UK will lead to policies that can only have a negative effect on the rest of the country.

Well basically it's clear enough that the overall trend is well up and the only question now seems to be how high they will go.

"Britain’s leading chartered surveyors have made an unprecedented call for the Bank of England to put a cap on annual house price inflation in order to avoid a “dangerous” debt bubble."

As for the Estate Agents declared selling price figures, these can easily be corroborated by official documentation at any number of different stages in the proceedings, through the buyer, the seller, estate agent, solicitor, registry office and any other go betweens involved, so it would a totally pointless exercise for an estate agent or anyone else to try to declare them at anything other than than the finally agreed and finally registered figures.

There is also Zoopla where you can not only see what a house sold for but what it sold for the previous time. Pity there isn't the equivalent in Spain. My figures were UK wide and official Land Registry and Office for National Statistics figures. Surrey and Sussex are different, many go for more than the asking price (I know because we have been out-bidded a few times).

EMR I think it is you who lives in a bubble. Your area seems to be dire in all respects...Bristol is it According to this prices have risen 1.4% in the quarter

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/h...es/html/hb.stm

I will not dispute that the " average " price of houses sold quarter on quarter may have risen in some areas.
But of course statistics are only valid if you know what makes them up.
A few " high " value sales would distort figures from month to month.
The only true and accurate guide is one that gives a breakdown of property types, numbers of sales and price movements.
We are still a long way from the heady values of 2008 whatever some would like to suggest.
I pass at least 6 estate agents in my daily walk. the eveidence is in their windows.

What on earth is all this obsession of getting back to "the heady values of 2008" ?
Do we really want to or need to ?
The fact that the market is steadily firming up is a good sign in itself, but letting it run to extremes is only likely to bring forth it's own set of problems.

There is a huge level of mortgage debt ( negative equity ) that will only be solved by a return to price levels close to or around those of the peak.
It is one of the " elephants " in the room that politicians of all parties just want to ignore

I don't really know much about this discussion nor want to get involved in it but, for what it's worth, we own a small modern semi in Somerset, very near Bristol.

Zoopla shows its current value at 152,000 up 9,000 from 5 years ago which was 2008.