Now we know why the housing market is so buoyant!
The National Association of Estate Agents has today confirmed, what many more experts already believed, that due to a shortage of quality housing in the UK there are anything up to 5 buyers pursuing every property on the market. However, it was revealed that in October estate agents in the UK sold on average 7.7 properties each which is down from 8.5 in September. So while there is more competition, with fewer houses, this is not converting into sales and is beginning to cause concern in the industry.
It comes as no surprise to find there is competition for houses which are on the market as many have believed for some time that prices in some areas of the country are being pushed to artificially high levels. The problem is that, unless we see further follow-through as the economy grows, there will come a point when investors stop chasing and house prices start to fall back. This potential fall in house prices could well start as a trickle and end up as a possible wave which would further depress the sector as a whole and impact upon the UK economy.
While many had hoped the situation become clearer as we approach the New Year, it looks as though 2009 and 2010 could be very difficult years to predict with regards to the UK economy.
Share this..
Related stories
New House Starts Fall By 21% In First Quarter Of 2008
In a move which is hardly surprising we have today heard confirmation that new housing starts in the UK fell by 21% compared to the previous quarter, although the fall is larger at 24% compared to the same period last year. There was also similar news on the housing completions number which fell 18% to 39,500 compared to the same period last year, but only 12% compared to the last quarter. T...
Read MoreLord Turner backs UK financial sector
Lord Turner, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, believes now is the time to lay off the UK banking sector which has been demonised for many months now. Only yesterday we saw Nick Clegg and Vince Cable stepping up to the mark to suggest that the government will "do whatever is needed" to attack the greed of the UK financial sector. There is now a danger that the banking industry will...
Read MoreInterest rates 'unlikely' to be upped
Interest rates in Britain are likely to remain at their current level of 5.25 per cent ahead of tomorrow's decision from the Bank of England.The Bank's monetary policy committee (MPC) voted 7-2 to hold base rates last month following January's shock quarter of a per cent rise.But with consumer price index (CPI) inflation showing signs of abating, as well as robust manufacturing data in the last qu...
Read MoreIMF changes opinion on UK economy
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has today issued a change in opinion with regards to the UK economy with a suggestion that recovery will happen sooner than previously expected. While the IMF is of the opinion that GDP (gross domestic product) will fall by a worse than expected 4.2% in 2009 (against a former estimate of 4.1%) the news in relation to the economy as a whole is much more upbeat....
Read MoreWill we see a reduction in the number of UK building societies?
As further news regarding the West Bromwich building society continues to hit the markets there is a growing consensus that the building society sector we have today will be very different in 12 months time. While the West Bromwich is by far and away the most serious of the current issues ongoing, there are many other smaller operations who are struggling to make ends meet. So where can they go fr...
Read More