GET OFF YOUR SOAP BOX!

Property asking prices have certainly ‘jumped’ in the last few months. The apparent demand or should I say the actual lack of supply has meant Vendors and Estate Agents seem to be upping the ante in terms of asking prices. But what for 2010? Personally, I still can not get my head around some of the ‘values’ being put on property. There seems to be a world of delusion out there.

The following ‘experts’ have given their predictions for 2010 to the FT.

Stuart Law, chief executive of Assetz: +5 per cent

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager, John Charcol: +4 per cent

David Bexon, managing director, SmartNewHomes.com: +2 to +3 per cent

Nigel Lewis, findaproperty.com: +1 per cent

Jonathan Haward, chairman of County Homesearch: +1 per cent

Nick Louth, My Portfolio columnist: 0 per cent

David Buik, senior strategist, BGC Partners: 0 per cent

Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank: -3 per cent

Mark Dampier, head of research, Hargreaves Lansdown: -10 per cent

Dominic Picarda, FT Money contributor: -10 per cent (at least)

The fox in Kevin Goldstein- Jackson’s garden: +1 per cent

See the FT story in full here.

For me the economy is far from strong enough to support any real growth. But the killer would be interest rates increasing to more ‘normal’, but still very low levels. If they were to go to, say, just 2%, it doesn’t seem a lot but that would increase the monthly mortgage payments on a £100,000 interest only mortgage by £125 per month. A few pips would squeak then I think!

And a recent YouGov/Shelter poll showed that 1 Million people use their credit card to pay their mortgage or rent. In London, 12% of people do. If this is indicative of how fragile household budgets are, that word, delusion, couldn’t be more apt.

We will see.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 7:08 pm and is filed under Business/Economy, Property. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.