Blog Post
Asking prices in Stockport only increase by 2% in the last twelve months!
I had an interesting question the other day from a homeowner in Davenport who asked me the difference between asking prices and values and why it mattered. When it comes to selling property, there must be agreement between the purchaser (buyer) and seller (vendor) for a property sale to take place. The value a buyer applies to a property can massively differ from the value a seller or mortgage company places upon it. The seller, the buyer and the mortgage company must find an agreeable value to assign to a property so the sale can proceed.
In many of my articles about the Stockport property market, I talk about values, i.e. what property in Stockport actually sells for, but I haven’t spoken about asking prices for while. Now asking prices are important as they are one of the four key matters a potential buyer will judge your property on (the others being location, bedrooms and type). Price yourself too high and you will put off buyers. So let’s take a look at the Stockport numbers.
Over the last 12 months asking prices (i.e. the price advertised in the paper and on Rightmove) in Stockport have increased by 2%, taking the average asking price in Stockport to £224,009 (up from £218,828 twelve months ago).
Interestingly though, when we look at, say semi-detached property and terrace houses, a slightly different picture appears. Twelve months ago, the average asking price for a semi-detached house in Stockport was £206,451 and today its £215,422 (a rise of 4%); whilst over the same 12-month period, the average asking price of a terrace house was £146,976 a year ago, and today its £145,621 (a drop of 1%). However the devil is in the details as the average price paid for a terrace house is considerably higher as can be seen further down.
In December 2015, there were 1,424 properties on the market, in Stockport today there are 1,353 properties on the market (down 5%). This will mean homeowners looking to sell will need to be conscious of how their property compares against others on the Stockport property market. The Stockport property market still has momentum and sufficient demand in my opinion remains to provoke more modest asking price rises. This noteworthy decrease in supply since Christmas is currently providing less choice for buyers and is tempering asking price rises.
…And here is the second point to make. Asking prices are one thing, but what a property sells for (i.e. value) is a completely different matter. These are the average prices achieved (i.e. what they sold for or the average value) for property in Stockport over the last 12 months...
Overall Average £212,895
Semi-detached £209,247
Terrace-Houses £151,098
You can quite clearly see, there is a difference between what people are asking for property and what it is selling for. The underlying fundamentals of low interest mortgages and tight supply remain prevalent in the Stockport property market. However, the number one lesson has to be this... if you want to sell, be realistic with your pricing.
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