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walk2dewater
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Calling all the Irish, deals to be had in Nottingham...
http://money.guardian.co.uk/houseprices/story/0,,1814787,00.html
Nottingham outlaws are robbing the 'hood
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Hans Kundnani
Friday July 7, 2006
The Guardian
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These days in Nottingham it's no fun being an estate agent. "You only have to drive around Nottingham to see for yourself how many For Sale boards there are," said Barbara Palmer, an estate agent at Spencer Birch.
According to the Nationwide figures published yesterday, house prices there have plumeted by 13% in the past 12 months, the steepest decline in the country. Nottingham has also been awarded the title of crime and gun capital of Britain, which is unlikely to be a coincidence.
Sitting in an empty office and pointing at a wall full of unsold property listings, Ms Palmer said she was working harder than a year ago. "Nothing seems to be moving at all," she said. "We're getting a lot of offers below the asking price. It's a bit of a dire situation."
Nationwide economist Fionnuala Earley said the 13% price fall could reflect a number of factors, including jobs uncertainty at Boots, which is based in the city. She conceded that Nottingham's reputation as a crime hotspot may have an impact on homebuyer sentiment. The thinktank Reform says that there were 115.5 crimes per 1,000 people in Nottingham in 2005, compared with 49.1 in similarly sized Wolverhampton.
Estate agents in Nottingham agree that there is a glut of property in the student market. Many people have bought properties to let to students, but more recently a large number of purpose-built apartments have come on the market. As a result, many house owners are selling - or at least trying to. "A lot are standing empty," Ms Palmer said. Over the past 10 years, according to Nationwide, house prices in Nottingham have risen by 168%. In particular, the local market boomed in 2004 before slowing down dramatically, according to Mark Philpot of Nottingham Property Services, an estate agent with 19 branches in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Estate agents say house owners' ideas of what their properties were worth became inflated. "It has to be competitively priced now," said Annabel Young of Thomas James. "People can't pick and choose the house prices they want any more."
http://money.guardian.co.uk/houseprices/story/0,,1814787,00.html
Nottingham outlaws are robbing the 'hood
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Hans Kundnani
Friday July 7, 2006
The Guardian
[/FONT]
These days in Nottingham it's no fun being an estate agent. "You only have to drive around Nottingham to see for yourself how many For Sale boards there are," said Barbara Palmer, an estate agent at Spencer Birch.
According to the Nationwide figures published yesterday, house prices there have plumeted by 13% in the past 12 months, the steepest decline in the country. Nottingham has also been awarded the title of crime and gun capital of Britain, which is unlikely to be a coincidence.
Sitting in an empty office and pointing at a wall full of unsold property listings, Ms Palmer said she was working harder than a year ago. "Nothing seems to be moving at all," she said. "We're getting a lot of offers below the asking price. It's a bit of a dire situation."
Nationwide economist Fionnuala Earley said the 13% price fall could reflect a number of factors, including jobs uncertainty at Boots, which is based in the city. She conceded that Nottingham's reputation as a crime hotspot may have an impact on homebuyer sentiment. The thinktank Reform says that there were 115.5 crimes per 1,000 people in Nottingham in 2005, compared with 49.1 in similarly sized Wolverhampton.
Estate agents in Nottingham agree that there is a glut of property in the student market. Many people have bought properties to let to students, but more recently a large number of purpose-built apartments have come on the market. As a result, many house owners are selling - or at least trying to. "A lot are standing empty," Ms Palmer said. Over the past 10 years, according to Nationwide, house prices in Nottingham have risen by 168%. In particular, the local market boomed in 2004 before slowing down dramatically, according to Mark Philpot of Nottingham Property Services, an estate agent with 19 branches in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Estate agents say house owners' ideas of what their properties were worth became inflated. "It has to be competitively priced now," said Annabel Young of Thomas James. "People can't pick and choose the house prices they want any more."