The Buyers Are Back

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Estate agents say the year has started well

Local estate agents say there are clear signs that the property market is picking up with an increasing number of Shepherd's Bush homes having changed hands since the beginning of the year.

“We've had a fantastic start to the year in Shepherd's Bush/Brook Green,” said estate agent Christopher Simon of Faron Sutaria. “We are experiencing an incredibly high amount of interest. This week alone we have agreed the sales of five properties in two days. We also had four exchanges take place in one week, just over two weeks ago. Investors have started coming back and we are dealing with a lot of 100% cash buyers who possibly sold in the peak market and have rented, waiting for the right time to buy.”

Paul Jorgensen of Jorgensen Turner on Uxbridge Road tells a similar story: “It has definitely picked up. We have found that there are considerably more first time buyers out looking at property. We have seen serious purchasers out looking with substantial deposits which is enabling them to get a favourable mortgage rate with the current interest rates being so low."

He said smaller properties were doing particularly well: “We are getting interest and agreeing sales of one and two bedroom apartments quite freely at the moment. We are just beginning to see a rise in the number of house buyers coming back in to the market but not at the same rate as flats. This should hopefully filter through up the market over the next couple of months, plus the spring market always tends to get busier as we go in to the months of March, April and May,” Jorgensen said.

Month	Average Price (£)	Monthly Change (%)	Annual Change (%)	Sales Volume
January 2008	508,440	0.7	22.6	178
February 2008	513,699	1.0	21.7	164
March 2008	506,007	-1.5	17.4	148
April 2008	502,671	-0.7	12.8	167
May 2008	497,130	-1.1	9.6	135
June 2008	487,319	-2.0	4.4	105
July 2008	487,106	0.0	1.9	142
August 2008	484,349	-0.6	-0.6	127
September 2008	478,721	-1.2	-3.3	94
October 2008	465,629	-2.7	-6.5	103
November 2008	459,226	-1.4	-9.2	71
December 2008	447,814	-2.5	-11.4	-
January 2009	441,182	-1.5	-13.2	-

The latest Land Registry figures, released at the end of February, show that the average house price in Hammersmith and Fulham in January was £441,182 – down 1.5% from the previous month and 13.2% down from January 2008. Sales volume figures for the three most recent months are not yet available but in November 2008, just 71 properties changed hands across the whole borough.

“With regard to what properties are selling for, we are achieving on average 10% under the asking prices,” said Paul Jorgensen.

However, Christopher Simon suggests that some of the features of the boom years appear to be back, with buyers competing for some properties: “We had three buyers for one house,” he said. “It went to a best and final yesterday and achieved considerably more than the asking price. We have another two best and final bids on a two bedroom flat today and a three bedroom flat on Friday. Both have three or more buyers competing. We had another best and final offer yesterday where again we achieved over the asking price. The property was on for £250k and we had two offers over the threshold level.

“We are currently achieving better ratios, percentages, offer levels and agreed deals than the same time in 2007. Considering we are supposedly in the worst market in history, we seem to be bucking the trend in this area. As spring is nearly upon us, buyer registrations are incredibly high so it looks like it could be a really positive year,” Simon said.

Source: Land Registry

6 March 2009