A FEW WISE WORDS FROM RICHARD MURRAY, MURRAYS ESTATE AGENTS
(ORIGINAL ARTICLE COURTESY OF “THIS IS GLOUCESTERSHIRE” – CLICK HERE FOR THEIR WEBSITE)
What's the state of the housing market at the moment?
I'm glad to say we're still here, coming out of the recession, although recession is still looming. But the property market seems to have settled and prices aren't changing that much now. The good feeling out there has come back a little bit because people sat for two or three years thinking about moving without doing anything but now, when they see a property they have always wanted to buy on the market and the price is right and they're not borrowing too much, transactions are happening.
Have you had a lot of enquiries recently?
Yes, but it can change from one week to the next. We look at them every day, for example, yesterday we had 12 good enquiries from people who are genuinely looking for houses and, probably, another two or so who weren't.
What has changed?
It is still a buyers' market because of prices, however, in the past few months it has changed a little bit with less supply than demand for certain types of houses. We tend to specialise in a niche of traditional. It's a type thing and it could be a £100,000 cottage for auction or £3million county house.
People had the aspiration to keep moving up the property ladder while they waited for the market to level, which it has.
There are many people who move for different types of reasons. They're still there – job, divorce, death and because they want to rather than have to. Those who want to are doing a lot more of it now and they are going up the market, or down, depending on their circumstances. The aspirations are there but they want to find the right one.
Why should people buy now?
It's one of the best times to buy when things are fairly flat. I don't see prices falling any further, but that's not to say they won't.
A few examples of prices in different parts of Stroud district?
Taking Stroud as a baseline, if you go up into Minchinhampton, Painswick and Sheepscombe, for example, the Cotswold villages, you are going to pay anything up to 10 per cent more. The closer you get to Gloucester you're looking at anything up to 15 per cent less. It's just desire, supply and demand.
Idea of deposits they would have to place?
The minimum lenders are looking at now is 10 per cent but 20 per cent is where they are more comfortable.
