Buyer's Property Market?

The market in my area seems to be heading rapidly in favour of the buyer. I have in the last week got two properties under offer for clients at discounts greater than 15% off the asking price. There is a lot of property out there that has received no offers since marketing began in the early Spring and both selling agents and vendors are becoming increasingly nervous of what may happen next year and , naturally, a good offer deserves serious consideration. This is partly because they were over priced to begin and partly a reflection of the market but selling agents are now quite openly keen to do deals at realistic prices. I would not say the market for country property is showing any signs of distress but there is a clear readjustment in price downwards and some sellers who have been less cooperative are now chasing the market down hill.

Market forecasts seem to endorse this view.  Knight Frank recently reported that "Prime country house prices fell 1.2% in Q3 2011, contributing to an annual fall of 1.7%. The most resilient sector over the past year has been the country cottage market, which has only seen prices fall 0.7% over the past 12 months." All this is true but at my level can be analysed further on a geographical basis. Ther is a lot of good property for sale in the south west which is struggling to find buyers despite the element of scarcity and vendors are having to decide if it's better to sell now to a good purchaser as there is no certainty the Spring market will blossom in 2012.

Savills have reported that "Second home markets in the South West have been particularly hit by weak market sentiment, though the townhouse markets have fared better. Taken together, values are down -2.9%" and that year on year values have fallen by 5.6%. Based on my recent experiences better discounts are available in the market place, you just need to know a property's true worth which is often supported through strong due diligence.