I attended a forum of local property professionals at the tail end of last week - it's always useful to get a general sense of what people think on the health of the property market.
A few pointers....
mortgage funding is still an inhibitor, with no real sign of banks yet loosening up funds, the expectation is that this will improve after the election in the second half of the year. More critical from a funding perspective is the larger ratio gap now being expected between loan funding and asset (property) value. Typically ratios are now around 60 - 70%, meaning, particularly first time buyers need to find a much larger deposit to secure mortgage funding. If we see a return to property prices increasing this ratio may increase, but again, considered opinion says not until 2011.
volatility in the market. Estate agents are optimistic that they are seeing the green shoots of recovery, but are not seeing the turnover in stock they would like to see, again particularly at the lower ends of the market - no doubt this is a factor of the funding issues mentioned earlier
As practitioners in this market, all we can do is ride the storm and wait it out. We are seeing a few more boards appearing but not yet at sustainable levels, and the normal springtime boom is definitely not expected or being seen in 2010.
Surrey energy Consultants are freelance consultants offering Home Information Packs, Energy Performance Certificates and general energy advice in the North surrey and SW London areas. Please get in touch if you think we can help.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment