What's up with flat prices in Shad Thames?

As far as I can tell, prices still going up. For example there are 2 examples of 1 bedroom flats on Tower Bridge Piazza asking £575K.

It's a common misconception that house prices, in general, are dropping. What's dropping is the rate of house price inflation. The media loves to report "dropping house prices" - it makes for great headlines and sells papers. The danger is that it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as folks take it literally and stop buying/selling causing the market to stagnate.

Is the Shad Thames market stagnant then?

Boss St Bloke wrote:

It's a common misconception that house prices, in general, are dropping. What's dropping is the rate of house price inflation.

Umm, no. What's dropping is house prices. Granted the annual rate of inflation hasn't turned negative, because of large rises last Spring, but prices have been falling by up to around 1% a month for several months.

As for the newspapers, they're the biggest cheerleaders for 'property ladder' there is. Falling prices don't actually make great copy.

beingjdc wrote:

As for the newspapers, they're the biggest cheerleaders for 'property ladder' there is. Falling prices don't actually make great copy.

Tell that to the editor of The Express. When not fixated on Saint Diana, the prospect of a property crash is their next best standby for a headline.
'Asking' price is one thing - in my building there are a couple of similar properties for sale, maybe a few square ft in it - one 'asking' for £675/sq ft, another a relatively modest £510. Such discrepencies must be down to a mixture of blind optimism and/or greed [from agents and sellers alike], or at the other end of the scale, realism or a need to sell quickly.

Um, no Beingjdc. House prices have not been "falling by up to around 1% a month for several months". That is such a vague generalisation as to be worthless.

Prices have been falling by varying degrees in some parts of the country, continuing to rise in others. You could safely say the gallop of the past decade has slowed to a trot, but there are discrepancies from street to street, suburb to suburb. You only have to look at the wildly different comments from the 'experts' to see there is no consensus.

All anyone can be reasonably certain of is prices over the longer term always show a rise. That term and the size of the increasse are the only variables.

There is no doubt that prices in SE1 continue to rise and record prices are being achieved even now.

I think it is partly because SE1 continues to be cheap relative to the surrounding areas (relative to distance to the City).

If you find it too expensive, go to Camberwell.

Agreed with Mapmaker. I can't see prices in SE1 falling anytime soon. The very central location, the walking distance to the City, the relative inexpensiveness compared to other central postcodes (Clerkenwell, Hoxton, etc.) make SE1 a very desirable place to live in for hords of young city bankers and professionnals. Hence all these fancy new developments and warehouse conversions that pop up like mushrooms after the rain. Prices might be falling in some parts in the UK, but in Central London? No way.

janefs wrote:

beingjdc wrote:

As for the newspapers, they're the biggest cheerleaders for 'property ladder' there is. Falling prices don't actually make great copy.

Tell that to the editor of The Express. When not fixated on Saint Diana, the prospect of a property crash is their next best standby for a headline.

The editor of the Express is the worst! Owns a large property portfolio and, on the day after house price falls of over 1% were announced for the month just gone used the annual figures to declare "PROPERTY PRICES STILL SOARING" on the front page!!

kmitchell wrote:

Um, no Beingjdc. House prices have not been "falling by up to around 1% a month for several months". That is such a vague generalisation as to be worthless.

OK, here's a specific one. In the Halifax House Price Survey, prices in London fell by 6.3% in the 4th Quarter of 2007.

Quote:

All anyone can be reasonably certain of is prices over the longer term always show a rise. That term and the size of the increasse are the only variables.

Maybe - for as long as we have inflation, nominal prices of everything will go up 'in the long term'. However we don't know how the current situation will end, as we've never had a bubble on this scale. The only comparable one would be Japan, where prices now are still significantly lower than at the peak, almost twenty years ago.

jeje75014 wrote:

I can't see prices in SE1 falling anytime soon. The very central location, the walking distance to the City, the relative inexpensiveness compared to other central postcodes (Clerkenwell, Hoxton, etc.) make SE1 a very desirable place to live in for hords of young city bankers and professionnals. Hence all these fancy new developments and warehouse conversions that pop up like mushrooms after the rain.

An excellent argument for why prices will fall in that area. The location has always been central, the distance to the City is unchanged. Demand will fall - mortgages are harder to get, and jobs are now being lost in the City rather than created, but supply has risen, thanks to all those new developments.

Everyone always seems to think their area is different. It usually isn't.

>>Everyone always seems to think their area is different. It usually isn't.


There is plenty of evidence of record prices continuing to be reached in SE1. If it is correct that central London area prices have dropped on average, that therefore suggests that prices in some areas have droped even further than just 6.3%. That is as vague a generalisation as any other. Not all postcodes are the same - and not all parts of postcodes are the same.