Current and Future House Prices

Real Property Prices: Understanding what is happening in a Summer property market is always difficult due to the impact of the holiday season. This, coupled with the poor economic news of trouble in Europe, the USA being downgraded from its triple AAA rating, economic growth in the UK being worse than forecast and the stock market tumbling from nearly 6,000 to 5,000, could have caused the property market to stall dramatically. READ MORE

House Prices Forecast: Knowing what's going to happen in the future property market is a tough thing to get right for any pundit at the moment. In the current property market, predicting this at a national level is almost a fool's errand too as pockets of the country and certain property types are holding up remarkably well, whereas in some areas, the ‘double dip' in property prices is well and truly underway.What will happen to Christmas 2011?

Buy Property Investment to Renovate

Renovate Property

With the property market firmly in the doldrums unless you are lucky enough to afford £500,000 plus properties in wealthy areas of London and around the UK, many people are looking at investing in property, hoping to buy at a bargain price, renovate and sell on at a profit. The key question though is in a stable to falling market will renovating property for profit pay off?

Years of Sarah Beeny's Property Ladder has instilled a real desire in the UK to buy a wreck and turn it into a beautiful home which you can sell at a profit either now or later on. The problem though is making a profit out of renovation during a recession is quite tough - especially with the restrictions on mortgage lending. And that's why we aren't seeing many property programmes on our TV screens at the moment!

READ ON TO FIND OUT MORE about renovating property as an investment

First Time Buyers' Home Purchase Guide

Here is your FREE essential purchase guide for first time buyers from Kate Faulkner, MD of Designs on Property author of Which? Buy, Sell Move House. Kate says "It is vital to secure independent, professional advice from people that keep up to date with all the latest news and views on the property market to give you a real guide to buying your first home". Kate continues "many first time home buyers rely on parents or friends to guide and advise them on buying a first home, but their advice is only based on their experience of buying a home probably some years ago or recently, but their circumstances are completely different to yours." This is why Kate has produced a quick FREE five step guide to buying a first home.

VIEW FIVE STEP GUIDE HERE!

If you need to sell: Listen to your local Property Professionals!

If you need to sell: Listen to your local Property Professials!

Unfortunately many sellers will trust what they hear in the media a lot more than they will believe from their local estate agent. If the well known and trusted BBC say ‘prices are going up by 5%' we will believe them rather than a local agent telling us ‘prices have slipped by 5%'. For buyers it is the same, certainly in the first few months of their home hunt.

The problem though is most of the estate agents will give a more accurate idea of what's happening to property prices. At the moment, we have areas that are recovering to the dizzy heights of 2007 while other properties and areas are selling homes at half what they were worth a few years ago. And with few buyers around at the moment and the credit crunch squeeze still holding mortgage lenders back, sellers who don't carry out research to find out what their property is really worth from an agent that is currently selling similar property types, are likely to get left on Rightmove for some time!

READ ON for the full article

New FirstBuy Scheme Announced

The Homes & Community Agency announces help for First Time Buyers to get ‘on the property ladder' with the new FirstBuy Scheme.

A new scheme called FirstBuy has been announced, including the housebuilders that will be taking part. A total of £210 million has been allocated during 2011 to 2013 to provide nearly 10,500 new homes for sale in England, with the first time buyer homes expected to be available for sale in September 2011.

FirstBuy works by offering a loan of up to 20% of the purchase price to help prospective buyers secure a property without having to raise the 20-25% deposit themselves. The 20% ‘equity loan' is provided by the Homes & Community Agency and the other half by the housebuilder.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

How to avoid being stung buying property in a falling market

Tips to Buying a House

In today's market when there is lots of ‘doom and gloom' it is easy to think that this isn't a great time to buy a property. However, a falling market might be the very best time to buy the house of your dreams at a ‘knock down' price as there are less buyers around to hold up the price. So how do you make an offer on a property which ensures you don't get ‘stung' with a property worth less than you bought it for?

READ MORE to find out!

How to Haggle in the Current Property Market

How do you buy a house?

The current market is back in the doldrums and when the property market is falling, past experience tells us it's a great time to bag a bargain and buy a house at a discount that you are unlikely to get in the coming years. Follow my step by step guide on how to buy a property by haggling down the price.

Steps to haggle in the current property market