With lower prices and cheaper borrowing, it’s never been a better time to buy a Chiswick property.
Homeowners are being advised that now is a shrewd time to move up the property ladder. Christian Harper of Chiswick estate agent Oliver Finn: “It’s a fantastic time to buy a house or flat in W4 as prices have come down and vendors are willing to entertain serious offers at much lower levels than last year”.
However some homeowners still need a reality check. A recent survey by house price website Zoopla.co.uk, revealed that 32 percent think the value of their property has either remained the same or risen over the past 12 months, and that it will rise over the next year. This is despite the same study finding that 97.3 percent of houses in the UK have decreased in the past 12 months.
State of denial
Over 1,000 homeowners were surveyed for their views in a bid to uncover the state of confidence throughout the country. The results suggest many homeowners may be in a state of denial.
And underscoring the gap between perception and reality, twice as many of the homeowners surveyed were more optimistic about the value prospects of their own home over the coming year than they were about their neighbours homes, with 38 percent expecting the value of their home to stay the same or increase versus only 19 percent expecting house prices overall to remain the same or increase.
“With money becoming cheaper to borrow it will not be too long before we see a sharp rise in activity and I expect January 2009 to see the start of the inevitable rise”.
