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Estate Agents Moaning - The Property Market is Messed-Up!

By: john mce

The 1.5 percent cut in interest rates by the Bank of England has come after the news from Halifax Bank that property values have fallen a massive 15 percent in the last twelve months. Credit has abandoned the housing market, so many are hoping the lowest borrowing rates for 53 years will help residential prices to recover.

According to estate agents across the country, the depth of the property market slump is worse than the research led by lenders suggests. Houses bought for 400, 000 pounds are selling for less than half their value, and many homes are being auctioned off for small sums because of impending repossession.

According to Estate Agents, city centre property has been the worst hit, with prices plummeting. There seems to be a massive over-supply of new-build apartments in city centres, with the abundance leading to property developers selling properties for much less than their real value.

Following the Government's dramatic bail-out of the banking sector, estate agents in Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham have noticed markedly decreased sales, many speaking of how !nobody is buying".

Estate Agents in Leeds reported 30-40 percent drops in house prices, pushed down by bulk buys. Meanwhile agents in Birmingham reported drops of 25-30 percent, and up to 40 percent on bulk buy apartments. Also, there have been very few new build apartments in the last two years, and many projects in Sheffield and Leeds, as well as elsewhere, have ground to a halt.

In the current market, developers are being forced into offering rent-t-buy schemes, where the occupier, who is unable to acquire a mortgage, rents the property for up to three years before deciding whether to buy at a pre-agreed price.

Developers in Birmingham are even offering 'chain-breaker deals', whereby developers offer financial assistance, to the tune of ten thousand pounds, to buyers who threaten to break the buyer-seller chain.

Urban apartments have been hardest hit by the sharp decline in the property market, mainly because their boom over the past decade was founded on the growth of buy-to-let investors, who in turn have been the worst hit by the credit crunch. People invested so willingly in such developments that the prices of urban apartments were very inflated, and have since been worst hit by declining values.

Also, urban apartment blocks are one of the few over-supplied areas, after urban regeneration schemes identified them as the best way to create affordable homes and meet Government housing targets.

Article Source: http://articlescrub.com

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