There's a three-bed in Hengrave Road on for £549,950!

good god - and it's pebbledashed, needs modernisation and the third bedroom is a single. Notice that it's been on the market quite a while though and is being marketed by that bastion of overpriced horrors - Foxtons.

After watching http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01...Episode_1/

I think this area provides good value for money in london terms

On a serious point given transport, relatively low crime, good schools its not that surprising given the current london market which is plain crazy.

We need to put the HOP house prices in context of the rest of london particularly zone 3/2 where it still under valued

You're right mrcee. Actually, given its proximity to parks, open spaces and good schools etc, as well as the new ELL extension, HOP is prob quite desirable. Though it's hard for longer-term residents to get their heads round! If it were anywhere else in London (and not SE London) house prices would be way above what they currently are. They're still nowhere near the prices being asked in ED either! Think what that house in Agnew would be worth if it were in SE22...

in SE22 it would be 25k-50k more. Frankly I don't think that is the right value differential between the two areas. (HOP discount should be bigger). Mind, there are some rubbish houses on the market in SE22 that have got to be overpriced by any measure. I guess what shocks me most is the idea something goes for asking price in this market (when the price in question beats anything ever sold on the street). I've seen at least 15 houses in HOP since February and very few of them have sold.

I am inclined to agree. I believe some estate agents are wrongly advising their clients to put stupid prices in.

I know of one 2 bed flat which has been on the market for a few months for 315,000 despite the fact that the usual price for the block is 100k less.

Having said that there was a house for sale on Boveney Road recently for 650K, which makes the 550K Hengrave one look like good value. I suppose a house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If they're coming from north London 315K on a 2-bed flat might seem jolly reasonable...

I think in East Dulwich it would be more like £650k+

A correction in overall prices doesn't mean that everything should drop so that they become the correct value. Underpriced areas should rise, and overpriced areas should fall. New transport infrastructure is one of the biggest reasons why an area becomes a 'hotspot', and people who can't afford to buy in East Dulwich or other areas on the East London line broaden their search and come across places like HOP with great period housing stock at affordable prices. Forest Hill and HOP now have much better transport links than ED, they are just missing the bars, and fancy shops which will surely come in time once the demand is there from the influx of new residents.

sorry I meant Agnew would be £650+, not Hengreave.

How often do you see a sold board up on a Foxtons property? Not a lot. Agents are really overpricing properties at the moment and misleading sellers. Surveyors are pricing properties very carefully and I bet you the £650k property did not sell it was just taken off the market. As it didn't value up.

I have not doubt that Honor Oak is a lovely area but Agents are putting silly prices in the minds of sellers. I can look at Rightmove and show at least 15 properties that have been on the market for at least 1 year and you see the price reducing bit by bit. I am surprised that some many people believe the hype of an estate agent. There really is no required qualification to be an agent.

I do think the East London Line will have an effect on prices but not the level that a lot of people are asking for. The market is very slow at the moment.

Thanks

Megan

A property is worth the price people are willing to pay, and you can't blame agents for getting the best price for their clients. The two 4 beds listed by pick wick recently both sold for 500k+ within a couple of weeks so for nice houses in the area with 4 bedrooms that now seems to be the going rate.

I think people are underestimating the impact of the ELL. HOP is now perfect for people working in the City and Canary Wharf. It has always been good (London Bridge is handy) but the route to Shoreditch High Street and the north of the City + the easy access to Canary Wharf means that a lot of quite well paid people are seriously looking at the area. I know a significant number of people who are looking to move out of places like Clapham into the area as they want to trade up from a flat to a house and they cannot afford the £700k+ for a family home in Clapham or North London. Rightly or wrongly, the competition for houses only pushes prices in one direction.

Agnew for £650k in ED? That is crazy talk. The loft isn't even converted. To add insult to injury though one with the same layout on Bovill Road but with the loft conversion has just gone up for £589k. I also notice that every random property that failed to sell in the winter seems to have come back on the market, at the same prices - well, good luck to the vendors is all I can say.

And as far as those two earlier Pickwick houses - the land registry records will eventually reveal their true prices.

BCM - I can't really agree on your assertion that a price is what a person is prepared to pay for it.

Surely most buyers are obtaining a mortgage. Even those who are cash buyers are likely to get a mortgage valuation and survey carried out. Do these people pay more than what the surveyor values at? I'm not sure too many people would want to pay more than it is valued at.

Agents / sellers are over-valuing property. All my husbands agent forums discuss this. Sellers still trying to obtain prices the same as in 2007 at the height of the market.

Statistically, the UK national average asking price is £236,000. The UK national average sale price is £163,000. Why such a vast difference if property prices are accurate in the first instance.

For the record, the definition for the market value for a property is:

The estimated amount for which a property should exchange on the date of valuation between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arm’s-length transaction after proper marketing wherein the parties had each acted knowledgeably, prudently and without compulsion.

This is the rule to which RICS surveyors work when undertaking mortgage valuations.

Lots of property sales are experiencing lower valuations than the agreed sale price currently due to surveyors not finding enough comparable sale data from other recent sales of very similar property (size, style and location).

Hopefully somebody will find some of this information useful to them.

Megans husband

I think you're missing the point - if somebody can get a mortgage and is willing to pay x price, then it's 'worth' x price, even if that person is being ripped off. Bit like with footballers - people say 'they're not worth £x,000 a week. But if somebody is (for whatever reason) prepared to pay it, they're worth it.

It all comes down to supply and demand. Demand has increased due to the ELL, greater awareness of the area, and inflated prices in surrounding areas. Prices have naturally increased to reflect the greater competition for houses which, even at their current prices, are comparatively cheap compared with other parts of London. If anything the surveyors are pegging back the natural rise in prices under instruction from cautious lenders. If lending was like ten years ago, I'm sure prices in this area would be actually rising much faster.

I don't understand why people think it's so crazy- you can't expect prices to remain the same if the area becomes more desirable to more people.

Jon

I'm not sure I'm missing the point at all, I just might have not explained myself as eloquently as I could have.

What I mean is the property buyers are often willing to pay an amount for a property of x, until the valuer says it is worth y. At this point the willing buyer then changes their mind and decides they are only prepared to pay y.

This is usually because they are very dependent on mortgage finance.

However I have also experienced cash buyers doing this very thing.

In these instances - nobody is getting 'ripped off' as the surveyor would have placed a true market value on the property, which keeps the market in check based on the current demographics.

HOP is definitely becoming more popular, however prices are still very much being reduced by surveyors and the market isn't anywhere near as strong as some people would lead you to believe.

Last month saw a 21% drop in mortgage approval rates (which is greater than the sum of two bank holidays).

As mentioned on another thread http://www.se23.com/forum/showthread.php...0#pid29910

A surveyor recently mentioned to me that even in these hard times that HOP prices are on the rise so i dont think you can place it all estate agents.

From my experience surveyor's valuations tend to be based on recent market trends in the area, making their figures inevitably lower as they are based on historic data. It doesn't take long, however, before a few sales at higher prices start being reflected in a mortgage lender's / surveyor's appraisal of a property's value. The precedent is already being set in HOP's case based on recent sales.

House prices have risen since we experienced the plummet after 2007 but they are still behind those dizzy heights