The property drought that helped drive prices to notable highs over the last five years has come to an end, says online analyst home.co.uk.
The report published this week warns that oversupply and overpricing threaten to stall the market.

“Oversupply in the post-boom regions of Greater London, the South East and the East poses a very real threat,” states Home.co.uk director Doug Shephard.

“London prices are being increasingly squeezed by a growing glut of properties on the market. This trend started in early 2016 and 30 months later the stockpile continues to grow. 

The average price for a flat in the capital has fallen 15 per cent over the same time period. Worse still, in Central London, arguably the first domino to fall, the average property has lost 20 per cent of value and agents’ inventories have risen by 129 per cent over the last 50 months.

“It has been a long and protracted slowdown and the same fate will also be experienced by the South East and East and then perhaps by further
post-boom areas.”

In May this year the number of homes on the market in the South East was 35 per above the total in May 2016.

In the region which includes Bucks the typical time on the market is currently 15 per cent longer than in June last year.

On Tuesday this week there were 8,009 homes on the market in Bucks – 933 had been added in the previous 14 days. 

Overall average asking price for a home in the county on Tuesday (the data is updated daily) was £544,325.

Average asking price for a detached house is roughly the same as it was a year ago (£890,575 in June 2017, £893,600 this month). Semis have increased two per cent (£408,436 then, £415,197 now).

Terraced houses and flats have dipped in price. The average figure for flats has dropped five per cent (£287,667 in June last year, £272,120 this month) while sellers’ expectations for a terraced house have slipped one per cent (£348,433 12 months ago, £344,249 now).

Compared with this time last year the number of one bedroom properties for sale in Bucks has leapt 61 per cent, up from 461 to 743.

Across the county, there are 37 per cent more two bedroom homes on the market (1,947 compared with 1,422 in June last year); 22 per cent more three bedroom properties (2,455 compared with 2,015) 28 per cent more four bedroom properties (1,790 now,1,399 then) and 15 per cent more five bedroom houses (1,016 compared with 880).

Average time on the market has also increased to find a buyer for a property in Bucks.

This time last year it typically took 123 days for an owner to agree a sale for a detached house in Bucks, average time now is 137 days. 

Last year semis took 88 days to find a buyer, now it’s 110 days; terraced houses were on the market for an average of 90 days compared with 108 days now, average time for flats to net a buyer in June last year was 121 days, now it’s 139 days. The local stats bear out the regional trend.