Chard Estate Agents - London Property Market News and Analysis

Wed, 25 Aug 2010

Want To Know What s Really Happening In The Property Market? Ask Your Estate Agent!

A quiet summer has ended with a little-reported story that might just be the best thing to happen to the market – in London or elsewhere – for a long time.
 
The government is to probe how house price indices work and whether the plethora we have today really serve much purpose. Boring? Well, yes, but the end result may be good news for those wanting a stable housing market.
 
There are two different government indices, two from lenders, 10 from estate agents and at least as many from different property consultancies. Some are poorly thought-out but even the good ones reflect only one ‘snapshot’ of the market cycle – so some are based on asking prices, others on mortgages and yet more on sale prices.
 
Media reporting of each index as it appears can easily turn a minor movement into a near-frenzy. That damages confidence and in any case, a movement in a national average price rarely mirrors what happens in Kensington or Battersea or Notting Hill.
 
The ideal would be just two or three indices showing different parts of the market and issued quarterly to reflect genuine trends rather than blips and burps. Buyers and sellers would then realise that for ‘micro-market’ information and advice, the best people to ask are not index-compilers but local estate agents who really know what’s happening on the ground.