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You are here: Home / News / Is The Housing Market Back For Good?
Is The Housing Market Back For Good?
Date
13th May 2010
News Story
The latest ESPC Market Knowledge report was published this week and it makes for fascinating reading. The main thrust is that the market is improving across East Central Scotland. As ever however the devil is in the detail .
Our experience based upon speaking to those for whom we have carried out Pre Sale Valuations is that an increasing number of people are telling us that they are hoping for more than they would have expected in 2008 and 2009 and are telling us that prices are rising! Given the way the media tends to report such things this is quite understandable but it is sadly not the case that the market has recovered across Scotland in a uniform manner.
Our experience based upon speaking to those for whom we have carried out Pre Sale Valuations is that an increasing number of people are telling us that they are hoping for more than they would have expected in 2008 and 2009 and are telling us that prices are rising! Given the way the media tends to report such things this is quite understandable but it is sadly not the case that the market has recovered across Scotland in a uniform manner.
The media's interpretation of the Scottish stats is skewed as ever by Edinburgh activity. The May report sadly for West Fifers highlights those misconceptions. Yes there is more activity and yes sale times are falling but prices are not rising and indeed year on year in Dunfermline and Rosyth have fallen. Flats especially have faired badly.
How badly? Well according to the report by 18% across the region and by 14% in Dunfermline. Bear in mind that this is a 14% drop on April 2009 which were already approximately 20% down on the 2007 peak! Houses have faired far better but are still down by close to 1%.
The report also points out that with more houses on the market ( up by up to 70% ) supply is now once again exceeding demand and this will quickly choke off further price increases even in the hot spots. This is a sentiment with which we as a firm would agree.
Additionally it is our opinion that with spending cuts that are coming and what appears to be an inevitable 2.5% rise in VAT come the Autumn and sellers and would-be sellers need to be thinking of taking advantage of what could be a relatively small window of opportunity.