Saturday, 2 February 2008
Property Snake
I've just read that in the UK only two English counties are in the "top 10" list of those with the highest house price inflation between 1997 and 2007 - and the top one is Cornwall. In the last 10 years prices have risen by 266%. To return to 1997 levels house prices would need to fall by about 65% (assuming 30% "real" inflation) - and assuming that the current price hasn't been hugely optimistic in the first place, of course, which in some cases it clearly has - there are stories of people adding on 10% to what would have been a "fair" market price just to give themselves "room for manoeuvre" - very dangerous in such price sensitive times! Houses go stale and that makes them even harder to sell.
There is a house price tracker called propertysnake which attempts to chart houses that are having to reduce their prices. I like this site as it shows me which houses are beginning to be priced more realistically. Its just a shame that some websites have complained about it using photos and linking to them. The biggest drops on there are of the order of 30%. However even there this site tells the lie to the idea that houses were selling easily in the first 6 months of 2007 - loads have been on the market for 9 months or more - and these are just the ones that haven't either directly or indirectly "reset" their count - for instance by changing agent.
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Average time to sell?
I wonder how long it really does take to sell a house at the moment. In Monday's Guardian it says 8.5 weeks but that is averaged out over the whole country and doesn't take into account any of the houses that have been languishing unsold for months on end. Or the ones that come off the market without having been sold. At least I assume that's true - I'd like to know how its calculated.
And talking of the Guardian in their Snooping around section they featured one of the round houses in Veryan near St Mawes. Its not in my St. Mawes list as to make it manageable the list only contains properties actually in St Mawes. But I did mention it in my South Coast Villages post a couple of weeks ago. I was disappointed to find that the Guardian did not include any more details than I'd already gleaned from the particulars on the website. The Guardian had it priced at £495,000 whereas the agent specifically lists it as offers in excess of £495,000.
(I think that anyone currently listing as "offers in excess of" is very brave! From what I've seen hardly anyone is selling and it looks like no-one is achieving their asking price. Its all very well having a lower limit beyond which you won't drop but this is now a buyers market...)
When I started this blog I was expecting there to be a lot more change in the houses on the market than there has been. However I'm glad I did start it as its giving me a way of tracking what's happening in the area I'd like to be living...
Would you buy a flat?
One of the things I've been struck with is just how expensive flats are now that they are called "apartments". I've never owned one, though I have rented a couple, and thinking about it now I doubt I ever will buy one. There are so many problems with them:
- Maintenance costs - one of my friends in a flat has recently been landed with her share (a quarter) of the roofing bill of £60,000 (£15,000 for her share) - seemed a little extortionate and entirely unexpected but she had no choice but to pay up!
- Self-run Management Companies - what a pain they are - especially if any of the people who own the flats are letting them out to tenants - next door has this problem...
- Lack of security - communal front doors get left open or are opened without due care via buzzers...
- Noise - I don't like people walking around in rooms over my head or playing music that vibrates my floor from below (I had enough of that at university!)
- Stairs - I don't want to have to drag my shopping up loads of stairs (both flats I rented were top floor and too many stairs up!)
- Parking - Even if there is parking its going to take luck to be are the one who gets to park by the door (I won't seriously consider any house without parking - I've never yet bought one without its own off-street parking though I have rented them and regretted it)
- Smells - especially cooking smells and cigarettes - these often seem to pervade the insides of flats - maybe the communal stairwells aren't well ventilated?
- Leasehold - if I'm forking out hundreds of thousands I want to actually own my own place - and if its not a very long lease when one comes to sell it may not be viable any more.
- Lack of a private garden space or worse still a garden that is down loads of stairs and not even visible from the flat. This seems to "add value" to the flat but in practice the garden becomes neglected and is just a pain - where do you keep gardening tools when your little patch of garden would be totally consumed by a shed?
- And currently they seem to be rather poor bets as investments...
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Statistics
Just a reminder to myself about the difference in percentages on the way up and on the way down.
If a house starts out at £200,000 and rises to £400,000 then that is a 100% gain. the reverse, from £400,000 down to £200,000 is only a 50% loss.
If a house starts out at £200,000 and rises to £400,000 then that is a 100% gain. the reverse, from £400,000 down to £200,000 is only a 50% loss.
Cornishman Property Pages
Despite seeing almost none of the properties I've been watching for the last 2 months sell there are still new ones being added. This encourages me to take even more time in looking - there is no rush to buy whatsoever, there is ever increasing choice and unfortunately very little in the way of price reductions despite the static market. I wonder how many of the sellers really believe they'll get their asking price? Or even within 10%?
Cornwall has a really difficult housing market. Its prices are dictated by fickle outside investors whilst locals have really low wages and are all but priced out. Anyone who already owns a house in Cornwall (whether they are local or not) when they come to sell it naturally wants as much for it as they can get... however those fickle outsiders are currently much more wary since although it is lovely to be able to spend the odd week by the sea luxuriating in one's "investment" its not a very good value investment if its "losing money". But the property market is a strange one, a house doesn't actually have a value until its sold. The idea that its "worth" some specific value is based on what someone else has paid for somewhere else and rather assumes other people will have the money and want to spend it similarly.
This is currently not true.
People with cash know they can wait and get much better returns for it right now in savings accounts. And people who need mortgages are much less likely to get them after the credit crunch whether or not they are themselves "sub-prime" or not. And of course people with houses to sell before they can buy are all stuck in the same tangled web.
Of course if a property is a business then its value should be easier to judge. I've been checking out holiday cottages and what one might hope to make from letting them out and its currently not good. The returns tend to be far less than 6% (before income tax). And no-one in their right mind would currently buy at full price in the expectation that their investment will then continue to go up to cover any short-fall in returns from holiday lets.
As the owner of a house I'm all too well aware that houses cost real money to keep going, they need maintenance to stay watertight, updating to stay attractive (important if you want to let it out) and cost real money in council tax (or business tax), electricity etc. If one is not nearby oneself there is also the need to hire people to do the gardening and housekeeping. Money in the bank doesn't cost this much to maintain!
I'm also interested to see which houses start to come on the market in the next few months as people with second homes hope to sell them just after April's change in CGT makes any profits far less heavily taxed.
Of the houses in the photo above slashed with red "NEW" banners I'm sure I've seen some of them before, making them rather less new...
Here are the one's marked new:
St Erth, 3/4 bed, detached reverse house in cul-de-sac - £375,000 - this one does not have any energy charts to show for itself which makes it seem, as a 4 bed house, to have been quite a long time on the market...
St. Ives, detached tea shop + 3 bed apartment - £675,000 - this one specifically says the date of instruction was December 2007 so not really very new...
Angarrack - 3 bed semi - £269,950 - doesn't seem to be on rightmove so may indeed be new...
Penzance - pub - £185,000 leasehold (22 years remaining) - plus £53,000 rent per year (not mentioned in the paper but in the details on the web) with a rent review coming up in September - seems like quite a lot of money to be finding every year! Luckily running a pub has never been one of my dreams...
Angarrack - 2 bed, reverse - £197,500 - no energy chart...
Incidentally, I wish estate agent details would give ceiling heights as well as room sizes.
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
St Mawes again...
The main change is that a few which are no longer advertised on primelocation are now on rightmove, they may have been there before but I'd linked to their primelocation entries. I'm not keeping enough details to tell whether these really are the same one ones but it seems likely as all are with the same agent and match in prices etc.
- FF Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom -
£235,000 & £230,000, £225,000, £225,000 - Conversion Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - Asking price of
£325,000, £275,000 - Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - OIRO £300,000
- Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - OIEO £305,000
- New to list - Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom - £315,000
- No longer listed - Detached Bungalow - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £319,950
- Mid Terrace? - 3 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £330,000
- Sold STC - Detached Bungalow - 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms - £355,000
- Under Offer - Terraced Cottage - 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms - £355,000 - Still listed but price now marked as £375,000 - did I really get this wrong before? Sorry if I did!
- Under Offer - Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathroom - Asking price of £395,000
- Detached Bungalow - 3 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £395,000
- Semi-detached Cottage - 3 bedrooms OIEO £395,000
- Detached Barn - 1 bedroom, 1 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £399,950
- Bungalow - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £420,000
- End of Terrace - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £425,000
- Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathroom - Guide price of £440,000
- Sold STC - Semi - 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms - OIEO £450,000 (I didn't notice it being "OIEO" before...)
- Detached Cottage (+ 1 bed Annexe) - 4 bedrooms - Guide price of £495,000
- No longer listed - Under Offer - Detached Bungalow - 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom - £500,000
- No longer listed - FF apartment - 4 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £525,000 Unless its this one, now on rightmove: FF apartment - 4 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £525,000
- Detached Bungalow - 2 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - £549,950
- End of Terrace - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £550,000
- No longer listed - GF Apartment - 3 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £650,000 Unless its this one, now on rightmove: GF Apartment - 3 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £650,000 clearly the other half of this one £525,000
- No longer listed - Detached House (+ Annexe) - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £659,000 Unless its this one, now on rightmove: Detached House (+ 2/3 bed Annexe) - 4/5 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - £659,000
- Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms - £695,000
- Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Guide price £695,000
- Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 4 bathrooms - Asking price of £745,000
- Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £795,000
- Detached House* - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £925,000 (b,c,d)
- Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 4 bathrooms - Asking price of £925,000
- Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £1,250,000
- Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Guide Price of
£1,500,000, £1,250,000 - Detached Bungalow - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - POA
Asking price of £1,450,000 - Under Offer - Detached House - 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms - £1,750,000
- Sold STC - Detached House - 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms - £1,750,000
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Review of houses from November 15th's Cornishman
I thought I'd check out some of the properties that were on the market 2 months ago to see how many of them have sold.
Featured on the front cover were:
Page 2's featured property:
Bradleys
Miller & Son - several of these were marked as reduced so I'll check all of them:
Your Move
Marked reduced in November:
P.A. Wilkins (their own website seems very limited so I've gone via rightmove)
Miller Countrywide
Three shown large:
PRH
Several that I decided to look for I couldn't find, its unlikely these were sold as most agents would still have them marked as sold to encourage people to put their properties on with them. But some of them may. Some may still be there but not have turned up when I looked for them. Others may have changed agent.
Only 2 that I found were marked as sold. 36 were to be found and not yet sold. I've no idea how many would be expected to have sold over the two months that include Christmas.
Featured on the front cover were:
- Penzance £695,000 Miller Countrywide - still on - no change in price or agent
- St Ives £450,000 Miller and Son - still on - no change in price or agent
- Hayle £550,000 Lillicrap Chilcott - still on - no change in price or agent
- St Just £475,000 Savills - still on - no change in price or agent
Page 2's featured property:
- Penzance £330,000 NCT - still on - no change in price or agent
Bradleys
- Carbis Bay - £545,000 - still on - no change in price
- New build "eco-houses" St. Ives - £400,000 - now £375,000
- Goldsithney - £192,500 - under offer - PZ/30/10/2007
- Carnyorth, St Just - £249,950 - still on - no change in price - PZ/06/07/07
- Brittons Hill, Penzance - OIEO £269,950 - still on - no change in price - PZ/17/11/07 (this one may disprove my theory that these are date references as the paper is 15/11/07)
- Higher Sheffield, Paul, Penzance - £374,950 - still on - no change in price - PZ/23/07/07
Miller & Son - several of these were marked as reduced so I'll check all of them:
- Ludgvan - £220,000 - ?
- Rosudeon - £239,950 - SOLD
- Germoe - £292,500 - still on - no change in price
- Penzance - £225,000 - now £220,000
- Marazion - £297,950 - maybe the same one
- Praa Sands - £199,995 - ?
- Penzance - £157,500 - ?
Your Move
Marked reduced in November:
- Ayr Lane, St Ives - £375,000 - now £360,000
- Wheal Speed, Carbis Bay - £249,950 - still on - no change in price
- Trewellard, Nr Pendeen - £310,000 - still on - no change in price
- Godolphin Mill - £345,000 - still on - no change in price despite "Our client is keen to start another project, therefore we have priced for an immediate sale..." Looking on rightmove its on with three agents: Your Move, P A Wilkins, Stratton Creber - all the photos show it as a house in the middle of an unmade garden - it would be more attractive with at least some turf!
P.A. Wilkins (their own website seems very limited so I've gone via rightmove)
- Newlyn - £299,500 - still on - no change in price
- Trewellard - £225,000 - still on - no change in price
- Nr. Penzance = Buryas Bridge - £450,000 - still on - no change in price
Miller Countrywide
Three shown large:
- Porthcurno - £525,000 - down to £495,000
- Tehidy Park - £299,950 - down to £289,950
- West Penwith - £550,000 - ?
- Paul - £750,000 - still on - no change in price
- Mousehole - £625,000 - ?
- Trevaylor - £375,000 - Sold STC
- Mousehole - £285,000 - still on - no change in price
- Penzance - £269,950 - in paper described as substantially reduced for quick sale - still on - no change in price
- Rosudgeon - £430,000 - ?
PRH
- Crowlas - £389,950 - still on - no change in price
- Kelynack, St Just - £450,000 - still on - no change in price
- Morwah - £225,00 - still on - no change in price
- Newlyn - £249,950 - down to £229,000
- Paul - £230,000 - still on - no change in price
- Carbis Bay - £285,000 - still on - no change in price
- Ventonleague - £299,950 - ?
- Lelant - £450,000 - still on - no change in price
- Carbis Bay - £369,950 - still on - no change in price
- St Buryan - £199,950 - still on - no change in price
- Outskirts of Marazion - £295,000 - still on - no change in price
Several that I decided to look for I couldn't find, its unlikely these were sold as most agents would still have them marked as sold to encourage people to put their properties on with them. But some of them may. Some may still be there but not have turned up when I looked for them. Others may have changed agent.
Only 2 that I found were marked as sold. 36 were to be found and not yet sold. I've no idea how many would be expected to have sold over the two months that include Christmas.
Thursday, 17 January 2008
South Coast Villages
Time to explore some new places. I thought I'd look at some houses in some of the villages on or relatively near the South Coast. I also thought I might consider more modern houses... and what may be more reasonable costs. Though, like everyone, I'm concerned about the possibility of a house price crash and as we have yet to put our house on the market let alone attempt to sell it these may still be in the dream category...
Gorran Churchtown
The agent H Tiddy describes this as:
Gorran Churchtown is one of three habitations in the parish of St Goran (the parish name being spelt with only one 'r'), the others being Gorran Haven, a fishing village now much expanded, and Gorran High Lanes, a small hamlet. Gorran Churchtown is very peaceful and attractive with a village shop/post office, a church, pub, garage/shop and primary school. About one mile away is the harbour and sandy beach at Gorran Haven, and access to miles of stunning cliff walks. Gorran Haven also has further facilities including a doctor's surgery, public house/hotel and more shops. The famous 'Lost Gardens of Heligan' are approximately 2 miles away and the working fishing village of Mevagissey is approximately 4 miles. St Austell is approximately 9 miles away, The Eden Project is approximately 12 miles distant and the Cathedral City of Truro is approximately 16 miles. There is a regular bus service to and from the village, and it also has its own community bus service.I like the idea of being near the lost gardens and the Eden project. I imagine myself taking photographs all year round in these most photogenic of places.
Modern 4 bedroom house in Church Gorran for £369,950. From the details this looks like a wonderfully straightforward house with two bathrooms upstairs (1 of them ensuite). The kitchen is described as a "breakfast kitchen" and is next to the separate dining room. If I were to view this house I'd be considering knocking those together to make a much larger room. It also has a garage and maybe countryside views. The description on rightmove doesn't mention them but there are two different photos of views included. Rather annoyingly this house doesn't tell you where it is on a map. Also the agent has a domain name - www.htiddy.co.uk - but this just goes to rightmove so no more information is available.
Also on with this agent is a new build in Veryan. Which they describe as:
Veryan and Veryan Green comprise a most pleasant village famous for its 'Round Houses' in the beautiful Roseland Peninsula of South Cornwall, and is a true village community with a post office/mini-market, primary school, Church, an excellent pub and a Sports and Social club (including indoor bowls). It is also a conservation area and is approximately 2 miles from the unspoiled Pendower and Carne beaches. There are many lovely country walks in and around the village, and the Cornish Coastal Path is also within easy reach. The Cathedral City of Truro and administrative centre for Cornwall is 12 miles away with excellent shopping facilities. The King Harry Ferry, approximately 4 miles, provides a short cut to Falmouth and leads to the far west. The sailing centre of St Mawes is within 8 miles.
The house is 4 bedroomed and on at £450,000. This one does have a map and looks to be 1-2 miles from the coast. One feature of the property is "no water bills" so it must have its own supply. Although its advertised as 4 bedrooms it only has 2 upstairs which means the other two are more flexible - on the floorplans the smallest is labeled as a study. There is a shower room downstairs so these 2 bedrooms would be fine as guest rooms. From the photos its has a rather strange looking conservatory and a depressingly small garden.
One of the "round houses" mentioned above is currently for sale - OIEO £495,000. It looks quaint.
Tregony is described by agent Alastair Shaw as:
The village of Tregony offers a range of facilities including Post Office, general stores, Pub, Primary and Secondary Schools, Doctors surgery, Church, bus service and is central to the surrounding town and city.They have their own website which seems to be mostly concerned with the mess that dog owners aren't clearing up.
On at £349,950 is a four bedroom house with 4 bedrooms upstairs, 2 of them look a reasonable size. Downstairs is what looks like a very decent sized kitchen/dining room thus allowing the room marked as "dining room" to be a study as it has frenchwindows out onto the garden I think we might both want that one! It has also a garage and something described as an "outhouse" - maybe a shed?
H Tiddy also have a place on in Tregony and they describe the village as:
Tregony is known as the gateway to the Roseland Peninsula. This is an area of outstanding natural beauty with much National Trust property, and a wealth of beaches, coastal features, fishing villages, lovely countryside and sailing facilities. Tregony was once a thriving port on the River Fal before it was silted up. To-day it is flourishing again with many interesting old buildings, Church, good senior and junior schools, doctor's surgery, Public House and a range of shops and facilities along its wide main street, including a mini-market, post office, restaurant and dentist. The Cathedral City of Truro provides all major amenities some 8 miles to the west, while 9 miles to the east is the town of St Austell, and 10 miles to the south is the sailing centre of St Mawes.The house is a split level detached house with 4 bedrooms and is on at £345,000
- it has views and a better sized garden than some. Its tremendous disadvantage, if the floorplans are correct, is that the bathroom is on a different level from the bedrooms although it does look as though there is a loo on their same floor.
I like their descriptions of villages but I find it odd that an estate agent can possible consider this to be a Full Description:
The accommodation comprises: Entrance Area • Upper Hallway • Living Room • Dining Room • Bathroom • Kitchen / Breakfast Room • Lower Hallway • 4 Bedrooms • Cloakroom • Utility Room.At least there is a floorplan with dimensions... but there is no mention of materials or plumbing for dishwashers etc. H Tiddy if you are reading this please put a bit more info on!
Outside: Garage • Parking • Colourful well-stocked Gardens to the front and rear.
Still in Tregony in the beguilingly named Froglane, is a 3 bedroom house on at £288,000. The house has a rather pleasing layout though the rooms look a little small. There is no garage but there is parking via "an unmade lane".
And for £285,000 a three bedroom detached with a garage, The Old Blacksmith Shop. This one has full written details and no floorplans!
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