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Money and stress are biggest concerns of people selling their home
Money, stress and time constraints are still the biggest fears for UK home owners when selling their home, new research has found. Despite home owners currently enjoying a very buoyant UK property market, securing the right price still tops the list of fear factors, according to a survey from online estate agent eMoov. Some 55% of those asked said not getting the price they wanted or needed was their primary fear when selling, with the stress of the selling process the second biggest fear factor for 46% of home owners. Time constraints completed the top three fear factors, with 43% of home owners afraid they wouldn’t be able to sell their home in the time they needed to. The survey also shows that 36% fear paying too much in estate agent fees, 22% finding a new property to live in upon selling, 14% dealing with the buyer, 12% picking the wrong estate agent in the first place, 10% getting a mortgage for their next home and 4% that their new property might drop in value in the future. ‘Price is always going to be the primary concern home owners and it is only natural that securing the best price will weigh heavy on a seller’s mind,’ said the firm’s founder and chief executive Russell Quirk. ‘Generally speaking, our home is the most expensive asset we are ever likely to own and for the majority of us, our home is our nest egg, setting us up for retirement when we do finally sell and downsize. So it’s understandable that it be the biggest fear during the selling process, as that couple of extra thousand gained or lost, can make a big difference in the grand scheme of things,’ he pointed out. ‘Our previous research found that selling your home is more stressful than your wedding day and so it doesn’t surprise me that this also ranks highly amongst UK sellers. When you add time constraints to an already laborious process, you can see why selling a home in the UK can seem a daunting task and evoke such feelings of fear,’ he explained. ‘I have to say I am a little surprised that paying too much in estate agent fees didn’t make the top three. High street estate agent fees have rocketed in line with house prices over the years despite no additional service being offered, some may argue the service has even declined, and so the dated commission fee structure is one of the biggest obstacles to moving home,’ he added. Continue reading
Top end property prices in Hong Kong set to fall by 15% this year
Stock market volatility and the interest rate rise in the United States has dampened investment sentiment in the property markets in Hong Kong, according to a new report. Overall the luxury sector prices remained broadly steady, with apartment prices on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon recording some mild declines, says the latest briefing report from Savills World Research. In the fourth quarter of 2015 primary sales rebounded after the quiet summer months but secondary sales declined further, and total transaction volumes of 10,000 were the lowest since 2002. The report suggests that prime residential prices are on course to decline by 15% this year, with little positive news expected in the short term. The data shows that sales sale on Hong Kong Island declined by 36% quarter on quarter in the final three months of 2015 while prime apartment prices fell 0.9%. However, there was still a 9.3% price growth over the year as a whole. Mid-Levels, with the highest concentration of primary launches and future supply among all districts, saw prices remain relatively stable in the last quarter of 2015, with an 8% increase overall for the year. Supported by a few house sales on the Peak in the fourth quarter townhouse prices remained stable over the quarter and recorded an 8.3% increase overall in 2015. Luxury transaction volumes in Kowloon and the New Territories also fell heavily by 62% and the report says this was due to a lack of significant new launches over the quarter, with most first-hand transactions coming from the remaining units of projects launched earlier in the year. Luxury prices in Kowloon declined by 1.4% while prices in the New Territories remained largely stable. ‘With investment sentiment dwindling, and few market highlights, many purchasers held off making investment decisions. This, coupled with the increasing number of newly completed luxury units being made available for lease amid declining rents, caused some potential purchasers to switch to the leasing market to avoid uncertainties over the next one to two years,’ the report explains. Mass residential prices declined by 2.9% across the board in the fourth quarter of 2015 and the report says that unlike previous declines in 2012 and 2013 which were in response to various restrictive government measures and thus short lived, the residential market seems to have turned a corner, due to the uncertain economic environment, a further possible rate hike and a potential tightening of funding to reduce capital outflows. In fact, while developers in general achieved satisfactory sales of primary projects in the quarter with 4,606 primary units sold, a 32% increase from the third quarter, this was mainly through providing more incentives, steeper price discounts, or both. The result was that the secondary market was frozen out and the 5,563 secondary transactions recorded, as well as the 10,169 total transactions recorded, were both all-time quarterly lows since 2002. Global economic uncertainties, stock market volatility and fears of further capital outflows from the local banking… Continue reading
Rents still falling slightly in Spain, but market is more stable
It is clear that the Spanish property market is recovering in terms of sales and even prices but the rental market is not doing as well. The average rent fell by 0.3% in February compared to the same month of 2015, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute. Rents have now fallen in Spain for 35 months in a row but the outlook is not too negative as rents are down less than the consumer price index which fell by 0.8% and month on month have been fairly stable lately. A breakdown of the figures show that all regions saw rents fall apart from Galicia, the Balearics, Navarre and Catalonia with slight rises of 0.3%, 0.3%, 0.1% and 0.1% respectively while rents in Murcia were unchanged. The biggest decline was in La Rioja with a fall of 2%, followed by Castilla y León and Castilla La Mancha both down 0.9%, Madrid and Extremadura both down 0.8%, the Basque Country down 0.6%, Asturias and Cantabria both down 0.5% and Valencia down 0.4%. Elsewhere in the market is regarded as good news that overseas buyers have returned to Spain. But it may be that some are more interested in older properties rather than new homes. According to data from the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, foreigners bought 69,196 homes in Spain during 2015, up 13% over the previous year, and accounted for almost one in every five of the homes sold in the country last year. Non-resident foreigners purchased a total of 4,846 homes in Spain last year, up 10.1% over a year earlier, while resident foreign buyers bought 64,350 homes last year, an increase of 13.3% compared to the previous year. Valencia was the top region for foreign buyers in 2015 with a total of 20,219 sold to foreign buyers, followed by Andalucía with 14,384 homes being registered to foreign buyers and then Catalonia, with 10,264 homes sold to foreign buyers. Research from boutique overseas real estate agency Ideal Homes International has found that resales now account for 76% of sales to British buyers but there is still interest in new properties from Scandinavian and Belgian buyers. According to director Chris White many British buyers are looking for dual purpose properties. In the immediate term they want a holiday home that also has the potential to earn income as a holiday let. In the longer term, they want somewhere that can act as investment for their golden years, either as somewhere to escape to for a life in the sunshine or as somewhere that will grow their capital so that they can sell it to fund their retirement. ‘There was a time when British buyers flocked to new build developments in Spain. The financial turbulence of the past decade has had an interesting impact on British property purchases in Spain. Confidence is back and the market is growing at a healthy pace, but the type of property that buyers are seeking has definitely… Continue reading
