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Sellers slash prices of 1,000 London properties
Ruth Bloomfield21.04.09
MORE than 1,000 properties on sale in London have had their prices slashed in just seven days.
Research by property website Rightmove shows that scores of sellers have had to knock up to £800,000 off the prices of their homes in the last week in the hope of finding a buyer.
The study analysed about 70,000 homes on the market in the capital, and recorded all those with a price drop of at least two per cent in the last week.
The results illustrate the lengths sellers must go to to tempt buyers, but are excellent news for investors and first time buyers able to secure a mortgage.
The biggest discounts included a five-bedroom home in Wimbledon village, now priced at £2.295 million; a two-bedroom apartment in Bayswater, reduced by £300,000 to £1.35 million; and a three-bedroom flat in West Hampstead, priced at £775,000, down from almost £1 million.
Not all the most discounted properties are at the high end. A two-bedroom flat in Dartford was cut by almost a quarter of its original price. Its owner is now looking at offers in excess of £89,950, down by £30,000.
Research has found that, nationwide, more than 16,000 homes have had their prices cut in the last week.
Rightmove commercial developer Miles Shipside said: “Sellers need to ensure they price correctly and realistically to avoid price reductions.”
First time buyers are still being hampered by a lack of finance, he said. “It is no doubt a market for those cash-rich and mortgaged,” he added.
Last week it was reported that property prices have fallen so dramatically homes are on sale in three quarters of London boroughs for less than £100,000.
Reader views (9)
Let's hope property prices drop to a more realistic level.
My house is relatively small (92 square meters) and no garden to speak of, but then again it's in Japan - 10% bigger than the UK, 70% mountainous where it's impossible to build and a population of 130 million. The house cost me 16 million yen (£106,000) at a mortgage rate of 1.5%.
- Victhebrit, Nara, Japan
I wish someone would show these headlines to agents in Devon. They seem to have mostly slept through the recession and are still asking roughly the same prices for property as two years ago.
- Lawrence, Devon
Well Chris of London; my Dad being a widower with two sons to look after, me being the youngest; we lived in Maida Vale; it was not that posh then; and we lived in a fine house with a rent of 10 shillings a week etc.
It was mostly a deserted area then; as the rich had run away to the countryside to avoid getting bombed; and property prices were not the backbone of the British Economy etc.
My dad would have bought the house then; but with only £7 a week wages, it was not possible.
Mind you Chris; I and my brother thought our dad was rich; earning a whole £7 a week.
But it is all relevant really; no working man could afford a house even then; just like today.
Lets hope the bubble bursts soon; I have waited all my life for that to happen.
- Mickyinlondon, london
Does anybody doubt we're still in a property bubble when a house for a family of five costs nearly £3 million?? How much did YOUR parents house cost when you were a kid?
Exactly. This bubble will burst. And not a moment too soon.
- Chris, London
A semi-detached house in Wimbledon for £2.3 million. Cheap at half the price. Correction - still overpriced at half the price.
- Sa, London
My guess is that these same properties have a long way to go in reducing their pricing to reflect their actual true value.
- Nick Nack Paddy Mac, London UK
You would have to pay me to live in Wimbledon.
Its full of Snobs.
- Mickyinlondon, london
"The biggest discounts included a five-bedroom home in Wimbledon village, now priced at £2.295 million; a two-bedroom apartment in Bayswater, reduced by £300,000 to £1.35 million; and a three-bedroom flat in West Hampstead, priced at £775,000, down from almost £1 million."
So, prices now from from complete and utter lunacy to merely totally tonto. I think we have quite a long way to go before we even begin to approach sanity. Wimbledon is nice, but not that nice.
- Rob, London, UK
2.295 million for a house in Wimbledon. Complete madness!All that is stopping some people getting into unbelievable debt are banks unwilling to lend such amounts. I would call this prudent banking. Or, are we determined to get back to the bad old habits. I will never buy a house again.
- Fred, London
