Desperation in The Cornishman's Property Supplement?

Last Thursday's Cornishman's Property section included two rather odd offers.

This one involves a house in Crowlas on at £389,950 where they are offering to pay the stamp duty. Which means the buyer, if paying top whack, would get the £11,698 paid for them. Someone has clearly noticed that there is something magical going on around this price.

If a buyer takes up this offer at the asking price then the vendor will get:

£389,950 - £11,698 = £378,251

whereas if the buyer puts in an offer of £378,251 and pays the stamp duty then due of £11,347 this brings their total bill up to £389,599 which is very similar, (though note it is in fact less).

The obvious moral of this to me is that one ought to offer very much less than the asking price and maybe press for them to maintain their offer of paying the stamp duty on top of this! I've read that most buyers are currently offering between 5-10% less than the asking price not just 3%. And with thoughts of a really significant crash in the offing starting even lower must be sensible.

Then there is this one:


These properties on at a variety of prices are all offering £6,000 holidays! On the cheapest of them, £125,000 that's 4.8% whilst on the most expensive £475,000 that's a very poor 1.26%. So eyecatching but not good deals. And frankly smacks of desperation.

There are some adverts on other pages which are advertised as "reduced" or "new price" but as there is no mention in the paper of what they were previously asking that could mean a very minor adjustment or a major one. Luckily I've saved my old copies so I can tell that:

Botallack, 3 bed terraced which in November was on for £199,000 is now down to £184,950 a reduction of 7%

Nancledra, 2 bed FF apartment was in November advertised then as on at a "new price" of £149,950 and is now down to £125,000 which would be, if true, a whacking reduciton of over 16%. Though on rightmove the price looks likes its really - £129,950 which is a reduction of 13%. The photos look as though it could do with a visit from a "house stager"

Nancledra, 1 bed GF apartment was in November advertised then as on at a "new price" of £140,000 and is now down to £129,950 which is a reduciton of 7% - the photos also look as though it could do with a visit from a "house stager" and on rightmove this one's price is now £125,000 which is a reduction of over 10%

I do feel sorry for people who have been hoping for more and reasonably expected it since their houses were valued at more before they put them on the market. I just hope they do actually manage to sell. In the last house price crash my mother was unable to sell at all.

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Samson Got Top Billing Jan 10 2007


This is a house that I've been following the fortunes of since before I started this blog.

The first time I saw it, it was on with Lillicrap Chilcott. Their description mentioned that it had previously been a holiday cottage on with Classic Cottages.

I wondered what sort of investment it was as a holiday let so I contacted Classic Cottages to find out. They said it would be in price band M. Which I reckoned meant one might get £13-£15k a year from it after their advertising costs but before all other costs (electricity, housekeeping, council tax or business rates etc. etc. and income tax) and allowing for vacancies. So not a very good return for £349,500. In fact at less than 4% before running costs and tax, a great deal worse than a building society account.

Looking it up in the land registry is seems to have last been bought for £290,000 in July 2003. And it looks as though they may well have spent quite a lot of money doing it up since. Unfortunately from an investment point of view I think it is actually worth less than what they paid for it then. (At that price the return is around 5% before costs and tax).

And from a living there point of view, the garden seems very small. Also there is the question of whether it has, or at least has plumbing for a washing machine and / or a dishwasher.

The details when on with Lillicrap Chilcott didn't mention plumbing for a washing machine or dishwasher so I emailed them asking about this. I got no reply.

It then went on with Whitlocks and still no mention of washing machine or dishwasher. I emailled them the same question and again got no reply.

Incidentally in the December 13 2007 issue was this:


I wonder whether there was a sale that fell through or whether this was a mistake as it was being taken off Lillicrap Chilcott's books and the agency being transfered to Whitlocks.

If I was the current owner of this place and it has got the plumbing that appears to be missing I'd hassle my estate agent to put it in. I'd also drop my price considerably. And I'd put it back on with Classic Cottages since its most likely use is as a holiday cottage and one with forward bookings would be much more attractive, especially if they could prove a better return than I've estimated.