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Housing Market Report: Latest Review Of What’s Happening With Property In Guildford
Published on: 4 Dec, 2015
Updated on: 4 Dec, 2015
This is the first of a series of local reports on the Guildford housing market by Tony Jamieson, senior partner at Clarke Gammon Wellers.
Tony writes: With the property market preparing for its traditional slowdown around Christmas, it is perhaps time to reflect on the events of 2015.
The mortgage market has begun to improve following a sterile start to the year. The changes imposed by the Mortgage Market Review are beginning to become more understood. However, there are still significant issues in this regard.
This is particularly the case for those now known as “mortgage prisoners”. These are house owners who are not able to move their existing mortgages, which they may have paid for years, as they no longer meet the new mortgage criteria.
Detached office with change of use to residential in Jenner Road with a guide price of £1.35 million sold by Clarke Gammon in 2015.
The changes in stamp duty, particularly at the top end, have had an adverse effect on property sales above £2 million. This will need to be rectified by the Government as they are receiving considerably less income in stamp duty payments following these changes.
The market in Guildford has remained buoyant for properties between £350,000 and £1 million. There is a distinct shortage of stock though.
As a result, most correctly priced houses are creating a lot of competition when they are brought to the market, sometimes resulting in several bids and even “sealed bids” scenarios.
Detached four-bed new build house in Curling Vale with a price guide of £850,000 sold by Clarke Gammon in 2015.
The top end of the market at about £2 million is suffering from the changes in stamp duty made earlier this year. Therefore there are a number of houses in Guildford still on the market at and above this level.
We have also seen a dramatic increase in ‘buy to let’ sales of flats.
An example of this is the new development in Buryfields. This provides an office conversion scheme to one- and two-bedroom apartments. To date, we have reserved 19 flats “off plan” in the first and second phases with only two remaining. The third phase is due for release in the coming weeks.
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"Found any?" - "Nope, it all looks green to me!" (See Opinion: The Future is Congested, the Future is Grey)
Pete Knight
December 11, 2015 at 1:08 pm
It may be worth expanding on this area as it is quite interesting and a massive issue for many people in Guildford.
The above article is not necessarily painting a true picture. There is a distinct shortage of stock between £1 million and £1.5 million – not just up to the £ 1million and this is your typical four- and five-bedroom detached in the town.
In terms of the website Rightmove, at the time of writing there are just 274 properties of all types for sale in Guildford – many of the ones at the top end of the market have at least two agents and therefore the true figure is likely to be circa 240 which is the lowest I have ever seen it.
“Most correctly priced houses are creating a lot of competition when they are brought to the market,” surely these are not correctly priced if they are going for more i.e. market value?
And as for the picture of the house in Jenner Road, this was on the market for ages at £1.5 million only to be dropped to £1.35 million – who knows what it eventually sold for.
Where has George Osborne said he will have to revise Stamp Duty as it is not bringing in as much money?
What are the predictions for next year?
Tony Jamieson
December 21, 2015 at 1:31 pm
Mr Knight,
I will respond to some of the points you raise in my next report which is due to be published shortly, but I do agree completely with you about the massive shortage of stock currently.
My comments about “correctly priced houses” was more pointed at those agents who deliberately over value property in order to try and get stock and you will then see it being advertised as “price reduced” a few weeks later, having not sold at the over inflated price.
The house in Jenner Road did sell at £1.35 million, in fact we received offers above this figure, but we didn’t get any offers when marketed at £1.5 million, so it shows how price sensitive the market is!
George Osborne nor the Government have said that they will revise stamp duty. However it is my view, and that of many in the industry, that changes may need to be made, as stamp duty revenue is down (see Nationwide reports which estimated that stamp duty income was £275 million down for the first six months of this year) but I fully appreciate that this may be a very difficult decision for the Government to be take.