Property sales are at their lowest level since 1978, according to the latest figures from the Royal Society of Chartered Surveyors.

Estate agents all over the UK reported property sales down for November – with most selling only 10 properties in the three-month period leading up to the survey – that works out at less than one a week..

Most estate agents reported having large numbers of houses for sale on their books – and the good news that 14% more prospective buyers signing up this quarter than last.

Sales were double the rate at the start of 2008, before the credit crunch started to drive prices down due to buyers facing difficulties in raising mortgages.

“Many are starting to see the current market as an opportunity to purchase a previously unaffordable property despite the worsening economic picture,” said RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf.

“Unless people feel relatively confident about their job prospects, they’re unlikely to even try to obtain mortgage finance unless of course trading down or seeking to release capital.”

“Sellers still have to accept the inevitable fact that house prices are falling and re-price their property to suit current market conditions.”

“The rise in interest reflects both the drop in asking prices and recent cuts in interest rates.”

The lowest level of sales in the past three months was in London, with just seven homes per estate agent, followed by Wales and East Anglia.

With sales still slumping there has been a continued downward pressure on prices.

RICS found that 76.5% more of its members had seen prices fall locally than rise, only slightly better than the previous months’ negative balance of 81%.

Both the Nationwide and Halifax, two of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders have also recently reported falling house prices in November. The Nationwide index showed prices down at 0.4% and the Halifax down at 2.6%. The variance is due to different sampling methods.

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Tags: Credit Crunch, Halifax, Jeremy Leaf, Nationwide, Property Markets, Property Prices, RICS

Sliding in property prices are slowing down, according to the UK’s biggest building society.

Nationwide released figures showing home prices fell by 0.4% in November, compared with 1.3% in October.

The year-on-year fall has also stalled at 13.9% against 14.6% a month earlier. This is the first time property prices have stopped falling since October 2007.

The average home costs £158,442, £25,000 less than a year ago, but £25,000 higher than November 2003.

French estate agents say the UK property slump has crossed the Channel as British buyers have dropped 50% this year.

Britons hold 29% of the 260,000 foreign-owned homes in France, and have a huge influence on sales.

Overall, French property sales fell from 10% to 15% over the first nine months of this year, according to estate agent association Fnaim.

In the UK, mortgage lending is still shrinking. Approved home purchase mortgages was down to 21,584 in October, 52% lower than a year earlier.

Nevertheless, while interest rates are falling, Northern Rock has increased mortgage rates. 

The troubled banks woes are based on arrears on home loans of up to 125% of the value of a property.

These make up a third of the Rock’s mortgage book, but half of the number of mortgages in arrears and three-quarters of repossessions.

Rock bosses told a committee of MPs investigating the banking crisis they wanted to lead the way in helping people avoid losing their homes.

Bradford and Bingley were also in the spotlight before the committee as major buy-to-let lenders with mortgage arrears standing at 3% over the industry average.

Both lenders were quizzed about their controversial lending policies.

Committee chairman John McFall, closing the session, told Bradford and Bingley chairman Richard Pym: “I believe you have inherited a shambolic organisation with a giant headache.”

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Tags: Banking, Loans, Mortgage, Mortgages, Property Prices, UK interest rates

The stock markets are filled with opportunities right now. The slump in stock prices isn’t a reflection on the underlying companies; it’s a reflection of the need to raise capital and the desire to avoid risk. The tide in the stock markets has well and truly gone out….but it won’t stay out forever.

Take Japans Nikkei index. Today, almost 20 years after Nick Leason worked his magic, the index is still down over 75% from its 1989 high…and share prices have recently fallen to levels that many are calling absurd. The average price of the index in total is slightly UNDER one times book value. This is just a ridiculous state of affairs for one of the most advanced economies in the world. But with the memory of the 1990s rout still fresh in the minds of many Japanese investors, the words “it can’t go any lower” have been banished from the collective consciousness for at least a generation.

They know the painful truth….stock and property prices can fall further than anyone thinks possible in the after math of a bubble…a lot further. Yet, with undoubted fear across many global markets, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to pick up shares at prices not likely to be seen for a generation….and it’s not only in Japan. In emerging markets from Russia to Malaysia to Brazil, valuations are completely out of whack with normality.  The growth stories may have stalled in these economies, but the longer term demographic and developmental trends are still firmly in place.

While the future may not be bright in the stock markets of the western world, soon emerging market economies keep their savings for themselves and invest in their own productive capacity. They will redirect their cash away from the US and other western economies that desperately need it to keep their consumption based economies from total collapse.  Once they do, the west will cease to be a drag on the global economies and the emerging markets will witness a boom never before seen in the global economy. Grab your share, before it’s too late.

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Tags: Bargains, Econonmy, Nikkei, Property Prices, Stock Markets, Stocks and share, World Economy