Pryor on Property

Henry Pryor is a property expert who watches the housing market closely, and doesn't hold back with his views and insights... see what's on his mind:

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24/06/2010: No house price inflation for 10 years

Plans expected to be announced by the Chancellor George Osborne this evening to control mortgage lending will change the property market at a stroke. Imagine a world with no house price inflation...

16/06/2010: Mixed messages mask structural faults in the housing market

Over the past week we have had various reports on the health of the housing market. The Nationwide reported a small rise of 0.5% in house prices last month whilst the Halifax noted a fall of 0.4%...

4/06/2010: Capital Gains Tax changes may not be so bad...

Plans to revise the way capital gains are levied may well impact on some second home owners and those who bought 'buy-to-let' properties but I have little sympathy for those who simply jumped on a passing bandwagon...

11/05/2010: Mortgage lenders scream 'Stand & deliver!'

The Bank of England held their nerve and left base rates once again 0.5%. No great surprise there considering the political paralysis at home and the melt down in Euroland...

17/03/2010: Are the only homes selling in London and the South East?

As the volume of sales slows to a trickle it is often suggested that house price indices might be reflecting the frenzy of activity that is taking place in Central London...

1/03/2010: Are cash buyers to blame for rising property prices?

Only 4% of people who buy a property take advice. Despite only participating in the market on average once every 7 years the average home buyer sets out to make what is usually the biggest single purchase of their lives armed with a conveyancing lawyer and a British assumption of fair play...

15/02/2010: The property wonderbra effect

Imagine if just ten houses sold across the country in a month and three of them were in London. Would the average selling price reported by lenders or the Land Registry be distorted...

24/12/2009: Bleak year ahead for house prices

In 2008 in the teeth of the recession less than 800k homes changed hands across the country, and 2009 looks like it is going to be only slightly better at around 850k transactions...

16/11/2009: Just what do people think of estate agents?

You wait for a report into Estate Agents from The Office of Fair Trading and then four come along at once! Today they have published reports as part of their study into home buying and selling process...

23/10/2009: Estate Agents are no longer the most hated!

I had to check the date when I saw the list of the top three most reviled professions. It must be April 1st because although as expected there were the trendy hate figures in the form of bankers along with the expected traffic wardens, no where could I see estate agents...

24/09/2009: In the eye of the market storm?

I'm credited with being one of the first to call the top of the market in an interview for the Today program in January 2007. Since then regular readers will know that I am not an optimist...

15/09/2009: If you can't buy a house, blame the banks and builders

More than a million people are registered with estate agents wanting to move. Rightmove.co.uk had 22.6 million page views on 10th August - a record...

25/08/2009: House prices - for dummies!

John Wiley & Sons publish the widely read ‘For Dummies’ brand that covers over 1,300 topics from how to knit a scarf through to how to load your new iPod....

06/08/2009: House prices to rise by the end of the year?

The RiCS has stoked the housing market by spraying petrol onto it providing a prediction that prices may end the year up on where they were in January...

20/07/2009: Your questions answered

Henry takes your comments and questions from his previous features and selects the most interesting and currently germane to answer...

11/06/2009: The devil's in the detail

11/06/2009: 'Interest in property up again' is the headline announcing the latest monthly survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors....

21/05/2009: Prices down half from Summer '07

We're all used to sensational headlines, it's what grabs the readers' attention and encourages you to read on...

7/05/2009: Licensing the letting agents

The launch of 'licensing' for lettings agents by ARLA, the Association of Residential Letting Agents is all well and good...

30/04/2009: The Budget and property - too little, too late

The Budget clearly failed to provide the housing market with the cardiac massage it so desperately needs...

03/04/2009: Are the property waters safe again?

Like the mayor of Amity in the 1976 Oscar winning film Jaws, estate agent pin up Peter Rollings, managing director of london agent Marsh & Parsons, is desperate to persuade us that the property skies are blue again...

13/03/2009: Could housing market 'quantitative easing' help?

A London estate agent has put up a petition on the Downing Street Web site calling for the Government to suspend Stamp Duty in an effort to kick start the housing market...

16/02/2009: Time to abolish stamp duty?

I was reading in the Guardian in early January about the amount of Stamp Duty revenue that the Government will lose in the downturn...

05/02/2009: How much does the asking price matter?

One of the biggest problems when selling in a falling market is trying to decide where to pitch your guide price. . Too high and you can easily be mistaken for someone who has been on Mars for the past year...

23/01/2009: New year, no houses

By now you'd have to be living on Mars to be unaware that the number of houses selling has fallen to record lows...

7/01/2009: The January property sale

It was easy to make a mistake last year and many people did when it came to quoting a sensible and realistic guide price...

3/01/2009: The number of homes sold in November falls and the outlook for 2009 is pretty bleak

The latest statistics have been produced for sales that completed in November.

Not surprisingly, the number of properties sold in the month has fallen to a new low...

16/12/2009: Bankers are turkeys voting for Christmas

The head of Barclays bank is reported today as saying that he thinks we are only half way through the slump with house prices likely to fall a total of 30%

10/12/2008: Prices 'down 45%' for some!

There are a number of house buyers who are already much, much happier about the housing market and who are pulling on their buying boots...

21/11/2008: Sales in September were down 50%

Once again I have the latest data from the Land Registry, this time it's the sales in September...

7/11/2008: Sales plummet 50% in September

Once again I have the latest data from the Land Registry, this time it's the sales in September. . This is the most up to date snap-shot of the the housing market...

30/10/2008: Lenders give up trying to predict future

Average asking prices in the last month have actually risen according to the web site Rightmove.co.uk but can this be right?

21/10/2008: Price changes are all in the mind

If I'm honest I've never really understood where the extra money actually comes from when shares and the stock market rises, and the same goes for houses...

8/10/2008: Rate cut lifeline for housing market?

Intervention from the Treasury in the form of a bail-out for banks coupled with the half point rate cut...

30/09/2008: Lenders give up predicting the future

"The reality is that, given all the market uncertainty, it is very difficult to make accurate forecasts." So says the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) who represent the bigger banks and building societies - for the time being...

23/09/2008: Now lenders want to stuff the market

It's one thing having the Chancellor of the Exchequer putting the boot into the housing market but quite another for people in the business to frighten buyers away...

15/9/2008: Who will buy expensive houses with fewer wealthy bankers around?

The top of the housing market will be the first to feel the impact of the turmoil in the City

2/09/2008: 79% fewer homes sold in July...

Initial sales figures have been released by HM Land Registry for the month of July. Each month they produce the headline statistics based upon completed sales submitted by house buyers' lawyers...

29/08/2008:I'm having a nightmare... I'm right!

I've just woken from a nightmare.

Recently, I explained how some houses were actually worth around 20% less than they were 12 months ago - if you really wanted to sell...

15/08/2008: Government kicks the housing market where it hurts

As if house sellers didn't have enough to worry about the Government has put the boot into the housing market with an extraordinary announcement that it's considering a potential freeze of Stamp Duty...

22/08/2008: Is your home worth 20% less than last year?

So, this time last year we were getting back from holiday to news that there were problems with a provincial bank in Newcastle...

31/07/2008: No sales in June?!

The latest sales figures have been published by HM Land Registry. . Each month they produce the headline statistics based upon completed sales lodged by solicitors...

15/07/2008: Sellers beware!

Last week I sat in the offices of a central London agent waiting to see the boss. As I waited, the familiar bustle of a busy agency surrounded me and it was encouraging to hear the phones ringing and viewings being arranged...

04/07/2008: No new homes.

Last week the Government won the latest round for their controversial plans for 5 new Eco Towns to be built in the green fields of England but it's far from certain, that even if full planning permission is eventually granted they will ever be built. The reason? house builders and developers look to be on the road to bankruptcy.

10/06/2008: Where is this market going?

According to some surveys, house prices have started to fall with the over-quoted Halifax index down 2.4% last month alone. House sales in some areas have dropped by as much as 70% and the wheels have even started to come off the buy-to-let market. But where will we go from here?

2/06/2008: B&B problems show buy-to-let situation worsening

Buy-to-let property is the ticking timebomb under house prices. With the foundations of the market now starting to show financial subsidance, concern about this un-regulated sub-market has started to attract greater attention

22/05/2008: Huge gap opens between asking and actuall selling price

The latest survey of asking prices from property web site Rightmove.co.uk suggests that in large areas of the country sellers are building in room to negotiate into their guide prices....

12/05/2008: Has the world gone mad?

What is it with some people? I've just received news of what must be this year's most optimistic vendor...

6/05/2008: Estate agency offices closing at 150 a week?!

'Estate Agencies shut 150 branches a week' screams the headline in the newspaper this morning.

'4000 job losses since the start of the year and the number of mortgages approved for home buyers has fallen by 44% in 12 months', it goes on to say...

15/04/2008: House prices falling by ¢š£1,000 a week

Latest figures released by Communities and Local Government confirm that house prices are falling fast, with the average price in February down to ¢š£217,000 from ¢š£221,000 in January....

9/04/2008: How far could the market fall?

April 1st brought us the monthly Land Registry figures which report the prices recorded by the agency when sales complete, usually a couple of months after the sale was agreed...

3/4/2008: How to save money selling your home

With newspapers screaming about the state of the market, mortgage lenders pulling out of the mortgage business by clearing their products off the shelves and the Diana Inquiry still dragging on it is sometimes hard to be optimistic that spring will ever arrive...