AS 45.1% OF SIDCUP PROPERTY ON THE MARKET IS SOLD ARE THERE ANY BARGAINS BECAUSE

Bargains – well yes and no – and let me explain why. To find a bargain you need to know the ‘market’, yet there is not one ‘property market’ in the UK. In fact, the British property market is like a fly’s eye, it looks one whole but in fact it is split into lots of fragmented pieces and the same goes for the Sidcup property market as that too is split into different patches… in fact it can even come down to two streets adjacent to each other, one street selling like hot cakes for top dollar whilst the next street can stick and at comparatively lower prices (i.e. if there is a school catchment boundary or differing postcode).

According to Coutts, property values in ‘Prime London’ have dropped by 14.7% in the last 5 years … yet look closely at those stats and Prime London is considered anything within a 1,500m radius of Kensington High Street above £4.6m – a totally different world to the average property in Sidcup, which is worth just over £415,000 and has risen in value over those same 5 years by 35.5% .. a different world!

I have noticed that the top end of the market above £600,000 in Sidcup and the surrounding areas is proving a little tougher to shift than a few years ago, yet this can’t all be blamed on Brexit, as buyers have long been flinching at overestimated asking prices and excessive stamp duty rates.

In Sidcup, 33.4% of properties for sale have

reduced their asking price in the last 3 months by

an average of 4.8%

A lot less than the reductions that are being seen in central London. In fact, the property market in Sidcup is looking reasonably good with

45.1% of properties on the market in Sidcup being

shown as under offer and Sold subject to contract

…Interesting when compared with the aforementioned London Prime market where only 5.86% of the properties for sale are sold .. some bargains to be had there!

So, where are the bargains in Sidcup? Well, to start with, it’s all about knowing the local Sidcup market. It’s all about comparing and contrasting property, so to start with, check out the property web-portals such as Zoopla and Rightmove to see what’s for sale. The art here is to click on the ‘include Sold stc’ in the filters .. then arrange them in price order. Then you will get a feel for what properties are roughly selling for. Also look at recent sales, so in Rightmove click on ‘House Prices’ on the main menu, on the proceeding drop down menu click on ‘Find Sold House prices’ and now you can type in a street, or even a street plus 0.25miles/0.5miles .. click on ‘List View’ and they are in date order. There is a similar function in Zoopla (feel free to contact me if you need a hand with that).

Then once you have found what you think is a bargain .. view it. Ask the agent why the sellers are moving. By doing your research on the seller, seeing how long it has been on the market, whether they have reduced the asking price (if you ask an agent they have to tell you and by how much) — you could cut a better deal if they are compelled to sell. Push home your advantage i.e. if you are a first-time buyer, don’t have a property to sell, chain free or cash purchaser it can all make a difference.

Looking at the numbers above, some savvy Sidcup landlords and home buyers are taking advantage of the doom and gloom newspaper headlines as property owners’ expectations are probably at the lowest they have ever been since the Credit Crunch, especially if they are in the ‘got to sell’ category instead of the ‘would like to sell’ category.

Like anything in life .. buying a property bargain comes down to putting the hard-work in, doing your homework and jumping at opportunities.

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