Properties taking longer to sell and dropping further in price
Property prices are dropping, fewer sales are taking place, and it is taking longer to sell houses.
But mortgage brokers are hopeful that good times could be back around the corner.
The States quarterly residential property prices bulletin, looking at the second quarter of the year, contains the details.
It took more than six months to sell a property in the last quarter – a month more than at the same time last year.
The final selling price is nearly 9% below the advertised price, compared with 6.9% in quarter two 2023.
The mix-adjusted average purchase price for the local market properties sold in the second quarter of was £587,673.
This is 2% lower than the previous quarter and 2.2% lower than the second quarter of 2023.
There were 145 local market transactions during the second quarter of 2024 – 30 fewer than the second quarter of 2023.
The four quarter rolling average time between a local market property becoming available and its subsequent sale was 202 days for properties purchased in the second quarter of 2024, compared with 159 days in the second quarter of 2023.
Oracle helps to broker mortgages for home owners.
For director Conor Burke the latest update came as no surprise.
He said that interest rates peaked at the end of last year, and for some people remortgaging, they found payments rising by up to £1,000.
But that has started to change.
‘Rates have been dropping in the first quarter of this year due to competition,’ he said.
‘That has plateaued over the last month, but with the base rate drop, I think it will have a positive effect.’
SPF brokers have been getting busier over the last three weeks, and managing director Pierre Blampied said he was hearing from estate agents that they were now busy with viewings.
He said they knew it had been a difficult year.
‘Looking at house prices over the last 12 months, we have seen a 10% price correction,’ he said.
He added that while viewings were taking place, it would take time for that to translate into sales.
And it might not be until Christmas that the recent base rate drop would start to affect mortgage rates, he said, so SPF still favoured tracker mortgages for home-buyers, rather than fixed rate deals at the current time.
Currently local mortgage interest rates are between 5% and 6% on most deals, and good offers have not yet appeared to follow in the wake of the Bank of England dropping from 5.25% to 5%.
