Spring - ‘expert’ price prediction time?

Are you bored of so-called experts banging on about house prices?

There’s little doubt a new generation of homeowners can now get used to the fact that housing is something to live in and not look at as a piggybank. If you live in London, it’s a hard fact of life that for many, especially towards the centre, most properties are now worth – even in nominal terms, i.e. not taking inflation into account - roughly the same as they were 10- years ago, or less.

But this need not be seen as a problem. People will always need to move, and the simple fact is the market value of what you sell and buy is likely to move in the same direction - you sell for less, you buy for less. Indeed, for many a falling market is likely to liberate more space for you and your family.

Part of the issue here is expectation, from Millennials back it’s always been assumed their property will be worth more than when they bought it, with this forming part of their ‘perceived’ net worth. Gen Z, Alpha etc. might well be able to start to look differently?

Let’s look at an example – you thought your flat might be worth ￡350k, but the best offer you get is ￡300k. On paper that looks like it might be ‘too little’, BUT, you need extra space for your growing family and the house you thought might cost you ￡625k might end up being bought for nearer ￡550k, so overall you could well be ‘up’ on the deal by enough to get a new kitchen and more.

No one can do anything about successive Governments’ desire to suck the life out of the market with SDLT, and it’s important to plan ahead so you don’t move too often, but overall buying in a falling market might be seen to have its advantages.

The point I’m making here is that whether a market is rising or falling, we’re all in the same boat and, as long as your sale and purchase is concurrent, it needn’t make much difference. One thing’s for sure, waiting and trying to call a market is a mugs game.

Ed Mead is an FRICS, long term commentator on all things property and an agent since 1979 before launching Viewber in 2016.

Viewber is a tech enabled property services platform giving users access to thousands of Viewber members all over the UK able to do viewings, photographs, inspections and much more. Over 600,000 appts completed.

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