Asking Prices of Solihull Property down 4% in the last year

I had an interesting question the other day from a homeowner in Shirley who asked me the difference between asking prices and values. 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 agree a value to a property so the sale can proceed.

In many of my articles about the Solihull property market, I write about values, i.e. what property in Solihull actually sells for, but I haven’t written about asking prices for a while. Now asking prices are important as they are one of the four key criteria a potential buyer will judge your property on (others being location, bedrooms and type). Price too high and you will put buyers off.

If we take a look at the Solihull numbers: over the last 12 months asking prices in the B91 area the asking prices have decreased by 4%, taking the average asking price to £442,600 (down from £460,600 twelve months ago).

When we look at semi-detached and terraced property, a slightly different picture appears. Twelve months ago, the average asking price for a semi-detached house in Solihull was £372,000 and today its £364,800 (a drop of 2%).  Over the same 12-month period, the average asking price of a terraced property was £240,700 a year ago and today its £267,900 (a rise of 11%).

In December 2015, there were 185 on the market in Solihull today there are 173 properties on the market (down 6%). This will mean homeowners looking to sell will need to be very aware of how their property compares to others on the Solihull property market. The Solihull property market still has substantial momentum and sufficient demand remains. This significant decrease in supply since Christmas has meant there is less choice for buyers.

These are the average prices achieved (i.e. what they sold for or the average value) for property in Solihull over the last 12 months...it is interesting to note that the average detached achieved price is £517,900 so when looking at the average achieved this does suggest that it is the semi and terraced market that is more active than the detached which accounts for the lower overall achieved average price.

·         Overall Average          £364,680

·         Semi-detached            £322,243

·         Terraced                     £255,800

You can quite clearly see, in some cases, 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 Solihull property market however, the number one lesson has to be this ... if you want to sell, be realistic with your pricing.