Is a tough property market the best time to buy a home?

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2019

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The best time to get a good deal on buying something is when other people don’t want to.

That should theoretically make now a decent time to try to buy a property, but will that work in practice?

The property market has run out of steam and house prices are rising at a far more moderate rate than in recent years

While the headline figures mask regional differences – London and the South East have seen prices fall, while cheaper areas are still seeing gains – even drilling down into the numbers shows most places are slowing.

Rightmove reported this week that the traditional back to school bounce was cancelled, as asking prices failed to rise for the first time in September since 2010 this month.

Meanwhile, the ONS, Nationwide and Halifax reports have all pointed to a period of much slower house price inflation.

The problem is that often to buy a house you need to sell one and- even if you can do that - estate agents and analysts point to a distinct lack of properties being put up for sale.

On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Grace Gausden dive into the reports on what is going on in the property market, to try to answer the question of whether now is a good time to buy.

Also on this week’s show, the team discuss energy vampires and what’s true and what’s false in energy saving claims. The delay to the smart meter rollout is on the agenda too.

As the Climate Strike arrives, they debate whether buying carbon credits to make up for flying is wise - or whether we should just be flying less instead.

And finally, if you fancy doing the complete opposite, the podcast finishes with a look at why now is the best time to book Christmas flights… or do your bit and get the train instead.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to This Is Money. I'm Georgie Frost and alongside editor Simon Lambert and me today is reporter Grace Gorsden.
0:06.8	And coming up, if you can keep your head while other home buyers lose theirs, you could bag yourself a better deal at this time.
0:14.7	Also today we're busting some energy saving myths.
0:17.4	We look at where the carbon credit offsetting is just a big old waste of money or a good way to save the planet.
0:23.7	Also, tis the season to book your festive break. We reveal the top 10 best value destinations for your
0:29.3	Christmas holiday. And don't forget you step today. With all the latest breaking money news,
0:33.0	just go to this ismoney.com.com.uk or download the app. But first, if you are looking for a new home and you can keep your nerve while others hesitate,
0:43.9	now could be a very good time to bag yourself a better deal.
0:47.2	Autumn, traditionally, marks a bit of a balance in the housing market activity,
0:51.3	but right moves say they've actually seen, well, the opposite.
0:54.5	They've seen a 0.2% drop in the average newly listed property asking price, and that's a first
0:59.3	time fall since 2010. And they reckon this gives buyers a rather good opportunity with expectations
1:06.2	amongst sellers, just that little bit lower. So welcome both. Simon, why we're seeing this drop?
1:13.6	Is it all Brexit? No, it's not all Brexit. I think it's a bit of that. We've certainly
1:20.7	appear to have reached the point of peak uncertainty. And I think it's also worth noting that
1:26.0	this heavily depends on where in the country you are.
1:29.5	So if you're in London and the commuter belt and the southeast, then the property market there has been suffering for some time, particularly in London.
1:37.3	And a large part of that is due to the fact that about four years ago, the London property market saw something of a mini boom.
1:44.1	We had people
1:44.7	queuing round the corner to view properties at open houses. Every time a property came to the market,
1:50.9	it would come on for 25,000 pounds more than the last one that came onto the market and so on
1:55.2	and so on. There was definitely a bit of the mania going on. And that all of a sudden ground to a halt. It coincided pretty well with
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