Rightmove: Optimistic home sellers keep raising asking prices despite unsold properties stacking up

Published 19th Dec 2011

Optimistic home sellers failed to cut asking prices in 2011, despite property sales stuttering and the wealth of bad economic news, Rightmove has reported.

Asking prices of newly listed homes rose on average by 1.5 per cent in the year to December, the property website reported.

But for most sellers optimism is misplaced. ‘With all but the most appealing properties, pitching at too high a price and waiting for offers is a route to stagnation,’ said Rightmove director Miles Shipside.

His view echoed the most recent Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors report which showed member estate agents reporting more homes sitting unsold on their books than at any time since the height of the property slump in December 2008.

Rightmove forecast asking prices to continue to rise slightly in 2012, predicting a two per cent increase over the course of the next year, with prices underpinned by a shortage of new sellers and low interest rates meaning fewer forced sales than expected in tough economic times.

But the report added that with inflation running high, asking prices were declining in real terms – Retail Prices Index inflation remains above five per cent. However, it added that: ‘with wages failing to keep pace with inflation this does not necessarily indicate a corresponding increase in affordability.’

Asking prices fell on average in December by 2.7 per cent, reflecting the seasonal reluctance to put property on the market by those hoping to obtain the highest prices.

If you really want to sell your home, Rightmove offered a tip that many may find tough to take.

It said: ‘ In a market where buyers are driven to hunt for value, the surest way to sell a standard-sounding property is to make the price well below the standard.’

Successfully selling in 2012 will require a serious degree of planning and careful pricing, the report claimed, with a hit and hope high asking price strategy likely to mean a property just ends up sat on the shelf.

Mr Shipside said: ‘The market fragmentation caused by the credit crunch means that success in selling now requires a very careful and complex local market analysis. As always it involves location, but the number of mortgage-ready buyers you can attract is now dictated by the type and size of property that you are selling.

‘Four years of increasingly dire economic news have also trained consumers’ brains to look for stand-out value from day one of marketing. Welcome to the complex world of your very own local ‘micro-market’
‘In the volume market of 2007 an average property at an average price had a good chance of selling. In 2012 average on any count will not be good enough.’

Source: ' ThisIsMoney '

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