MOREGEOUS

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8 May 2009

House prices drop by 30%? They have round here

Gutted to hear about another amazing family home being sold in Fallowfield, just up the road from us, for an absolute song - £295K to developers / landlords who are likely to ram it full of students and generally rip the heart out of it. 18 months ago, the same type of house was going for £425k, what a shocker. Its kind of a shame really, cause landlords had been priced out and some families were moving back in. I am a firm believer that a good mix of different types of owners / renters in an area is beneficial to all concerned, otherwise you just create student ghettos / tenant focussed areas where there is little invested interest in care and maintenance. Yes, yes, I know I'm a landlord and therefore should be counting myself in with the evil developer types of which I speak, but I have only refurb'ed existing flats, and so can't be accused of over-development etc.

It's crap isn't it, that people, in good faith, have bought houses and maybe running businesses based on the professional valuations and opinions of people they have paid to do a job - valuers / banks / mortgage companies, and now they find themselves in dire financial straits because of it. The guy that bought the £425k house across the road for me  will be stuffed now, negative equity, falling rents, and probably won't be able to remortgage when the time comes. 

And they talk about green shoots of recovery?? The only green shoots around are the envious glances shooting towards the clever buggars who sold up before the crash :-)

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