How should the actual price of a house be set within the marketplace?

A simple switch between agents primarily acting for the seller to having agents only acting for the buyer is now desperately required. A change from using selling agents to using buyer-advising agents should be seriously considered.

The effect of such a revision of sales and purchase agents would be twofold as far as house prices are concerned.

For the houses which should be attracting lower prices, it would ensure that each purchase price is generated by finding three buyers’ offers which would fix the price level for that house.

At present that is not happening and instead, the relevant price is being guessed (or garnered) by the owner and their selling agent!

In this new scenario lower prices could be the result through obtaining actual ‘market’ evidence of the property’s current price level.

For houses which are larger and of higher value (sometimes much higher value), the marketing would be more comprehensive and as a result, firm bids from three or more purchasers at any one time could possibly result in even higher prices, as more competition from the market could result in the discovery of more than previously discovered interest amongst buyers at the time.

Of course, the converse could and should apply where the level of interest was evidently declining for a specific house type, size, and/or taking account of its state of repair.

Either way, these proposals should result in an increased throughput of house sales because purchasers would be more encouraged to make meaningful offers, based on what they could truly afford.

For the full details of how to address all these issues simultaneously, please follow the link below:

The House Price Solution

How to Improve all local housing markets in England and Wales

I am currently looking for ‘a wing man’ who completely understands the philosophy of these new ideas and who will join me in extolling the virtues of them to all interested parties everywhere. If you are interested please apply using our Privacy Policy email.

Posted by: Peter Hendry, Housing Valuation Consultant

Author of:– The House Price Solution otherwise known as The Hendry Solution.

Restricting second homes and holiday lets will not restore the affordability of houses in local communities

Restricting the numbers of second homes and holiday lets will not restore the availability or the affordability of reasonably priced houses for people living and working in local communities – why?

This is the published opinion of a senior contributor and property surveyor of 30 years working experience and author of the ‘improvethehousingmarket’ web site.

It is published in a bid to start restoring the viability of ‘community’, in all regions of our country and to protect us from excessive second home and holiday property ownership, especially in more attractive localities.

Sadly these ideas may not be on the radar of any political party within Westminster at this particular moment in time. Why, we cannot say!

One thing is certain however, there are problems with any proposals to tax those who wish to own second homes or run holiday letting businesses, not least because doing so will not somehow make such properties suddenly become more affordable to those living and working in the particular communities concerned.

Rather than try to tax (or to fine) those who, for example, use houses as second homes or for holiday letting, or just leave them empty, I propose a fundamental upgrade to the workings of the whole British housing market, because to actually track down and fine the different classes of owners would not just be difficult, it would be impossible to administer in practice.

Some of the main elements of these proposals and their key effects are discussed below. The proposals which I advocate here are urgently in need of being brought in.

House Prices v General Affordability:

The way to resolve the house price crisis, would involve using the unique expertise which I have gained as a professional property valuer with over 30 years working experience in advising clients specifically on house prices.

Without appropriate change, things cannot start to get better for everyone, with regard to house price levels and their broad range-affordability.

“The changes I am advocating here would bring house prices back to within reach of those best suited to the houses currently being sold on the market or becoming available locally.”

Here are the effects of the proposals I am putting forward:

  • Firstly, local buyers would have a better chance to purchase such houses as well as rent one of them if this remained their wish.
  • House prices would more closely reflect earnings in the various areas of Britain and hence remain within reasonable affordability for those ready to offer a service within their community.
  • Finally, with more stable house prices, there would be certainty for builders endeavouring to build the extra properties needed to satisfy increasing local demand. In other words their costs would be able to be estimated more accurately.

Implementing this strategy would however require our government to challenge those entrepreneurs driving house prices higher, (whilst taking profits for themselves in the process).

This would necessarily also have to include fresh discussions with the large scale housing developers, land owners, banks and even some charitable housing associations.

A ministerial team of politicians would have to be assigned to carry this venture forward in order for it to be accomplished swiftly enough to resolve the present crisis.

This proposed alternative solution to the house price crisis involves two aspects:

FIRSTLY:
Instead of allowing the price of houses to depend on sales being arranged by sellers in conjunction with their appointed estate agents (as happens at present), house prices should actually be based on true buyer competition, using offers made for each property, coming with the added knowledge of where each specific buyer currently lives and where they will work.

This way, all ‘local’ offers could be listed alongside all non-local ones and the house seller would then be allowed the opportunity of considering choosing a local buyer over a non-local one.

This is the primary change necessary to bring about fairer house purchases for all houses across the whole of the UK. To achieve this, would simply need the change from seller appointed estate agents to buyer’s agents instead. There’s more on this later but you should know that most people buying something valuable prefer to have an expert representing them and most prefer not to have the selling agent trying to help them when doing this!

Using this procedure, especially where sellers are moving within their own local area, there would be far less need to entertain buyers from richer areas hoping to out-bid those living in poorer ones especially where attractions such as sought-after rural and coastal locations are concerned.

SECONDLY – in addition to the first:
This should involve strengthening the planning system instead of relying on it completely. It should be in addition to the first essential change explained above.

In peacetime (i.e. whilst our country is not at war with another), residential planning consents should be delegated to all local town or parish councils for them to determine, depending upon local housing need.

This way, genuinely democratic decisions may be arrived at using local decision-makers whom are best able to understand what the current needs of the community are at any particular time.

As a retired residential property valuer I remain convinced that if democratically elected local councillors were to be granted full authority to decide local residential planning applications, the effect of this could resolve the whole housing crisis.

Decisions made by such elected representatives would not be based upon NIMBYism ‘Not In My Back Yard’; quite the contrary!

Instead it would be a question of ‘IN My Back Yard’, as these councillors would be representing the wishes and needs of the local community – not simply trying to resist necessary change!

There could be no finer outcome than this, especially where residential property is concerned, because with this solution these councillors could work to actually resolve the housing crisis which we are now all being affected by, particularly owing to its increasing severity.

I am saying towns and their associated hinterlands should zone all existing and future housing within their administration into the following six (or more) specific categories:

Owner occupation: (by those working locally or retired)

Affordable to buy: (for those starting off in life and by those working locally)

Private rental: (by those working locally)

Social housing lettings: (by those working locally or retired)

Second homes: (for those not working locally)

Holiday lettings:

If considered advantageous planning-wise, a mix of different ‘user designations’ could be made specific to  individual houses and different ‘user designations’ may even be allowed in the same street or location, if deemed appropriate.

This would impose new restrictions on residential uses by using planning criteria contained within democratically agreed neighbourhood plans and registers similar to the system currently being proposed in Wales. Such policies could become a blueprint for reducing inflation and to encourage businesses to invest.

This would also help to limit the purchase of scarce housing and so would assist those with local requirements who could then compete with one another to buy the available houses, without being continually beaten to the post by those with more capital coming from outside. It should be stressed adding more planning rules cannot achieve the desired result on its own however.

As just explained, our assertion is that the only way to bring house prices back to levels in line with local buyers’ levels of affordability is to change the present rules for selling such houses by using both of these methods combined – namely both a wholesale upgrade to the workings of the British housing market across the board and the imposition of restrictions on residential uses – using planning criteria as contained within democratically agreed neighbourhood plans and registers.

The author of this post also says: “This new combination would be more inclusive, it would be more local market and it would be able to include local buyers, rather than largely to exclude them, as happens at present.”

If setting up the planning side of these market improvements should prove difficult to do or if it may involve a lengthy time delay, the best thing to do would be to implement stage one and change the marketing policy on its own to begin with. That should have a significant effect on the way the present and imperfect housing market operates and would make a massive difference all on its own.

The full explanation of how exactly to resolve accelerating house prices begins in an earlier article on this web site. To find out all about these fresh new proposals please go to the following link:

The House Price Solution

How to Improve all local housing markets in England and Wales

Posted by: Peter Hendry, Housing Valuation Consultant
Author of:– The House Price Solution.

The new 2022 proposals by the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove were good.

The new 2022 Levelling up Bill was a breath of fresh air and would introduce new ways to speed up housebuilding. It would help new homes get built to a better specification, get built in the locations which need such housing, get them built more to the requirement of the local communities that need them and be priced more in-line with the level of affordability within those communities needing them.

Scrapping the previous and much debated Planning White Paper is therefore seen as being a very necessary decision, as this has failed to stimulate the building of the housing that people actually want in the places they want them and at the prices they can realistically afford.

The new White Paper is expected to change all of this.

Among the features in the new Bill will be:

Design codes enabling local communities to set rules about the layout of new developments and the materials which could be used.

A new infrastructure levy determined locally to raise the funds for projects such as schools, hospitals and roads by basing the levy on the value of the property when it is sold instead of as it gets planning permission.

More will be added here about this, as we hear more about it.

For the correct way to deal with the present and escalating housing crisis, you can simply search on The House Price Solution. This explanation is what would restore the housing markets across our land to rude health at long last. Here is the reasoning set out in brief.

I advocate a complete reorganisation of the way in which houses are bought, sold and rented in this country, which is long overdue.

In full response to the ‘lack of supply’ pontificators, whom are rather prevalent currently, the whole rationale or philosophy behind my carefully considered solution for restoring the housing markets around Britain to good health, embraces the wisdoms of bygone days. How so? There was a time when latin was in general parlance and the words: “Caveat Emptor” were in frequent use. The meaning of this should never have been forgotten.

This used to be an express warning which was applied especially where property or real estate was concerned. The words of the warning mean: ‘Let the buyer beware – unless they are covered by the seller’s warranty in terms of quality and worth’. The meaning of this simple latin saying amply describes why the current failures are occurring, manifesting within all housing markets up and down our still great country. 

We should remember this because in actual fact it is the one thing which is required, in order to restore and correct the damaging anomalies surrounding today’s accelerating house prices. As explained, these anomalies arise from our having departed from and forgotten what were previously well-known and established wisdoms, to be relied upon whenever undertaking commercial transactions such as those involving the buying of houses for family use.

The problem of unaffordable house prices today simply isn’t a supply-side matter at all. It is a price-side problem not a supply-side one. A-level students studying economics ought to know this! Once this is understood, the requisite changes to the way in which our housing markets operate across the whole country may be realised so that they may, once again become normality. Central government necessarily would need to take a lead in resolving this current-day house price crisis of course.

In the local area where I live for example, there are clearly more than a sufficient number of houses that certainly could be used to satisfy both present and future demand for residential housing but they are not coming onto the market. Instead they are being used for non-residential uses. It is this that needs addressing most urgently, not the headlong rush to build more houses to satisfy a purely notional lack of supply when in fact, there is a more than adequate supply of suitable property both in our locality and in plenty of other locations all over the place!

Please consider what is being explained here and raise any relevant questions on this for public scrutiny and discussion. A campaign ought to be mounted to bring this matter to the attention of our government should those interested in this wish that to happen.

The right formula for such a reorganisation is what now needs to be fully debated and once arrived at I am confident that the formula for change would embrace much of what I am presenting and is not only worthy of full scrutiny but is a correct formula for the necessary change and is overdue for adoption.

The explanation of how to peg accelerating house prices as well as delivering all the other housing market improvements desperately needed starts here. You can read all about these fresh new proposals at the following link:

The House Price Solution

How to Improve all local housing markets in England and Wales

Anybody who agrees with what is presented here should go and challenge their local MP asking them to properly examine this and get it fully and properly debated in The House of Commons without further delay.

Posted by: Peter Hendry, Housing Valuation Consultant
Author of:– The House Price Solution otherwise known as The Hendry Solution.

Are estate agents taking us for fools?

The continuing rise in house prices during and following COVID clearly show that the following proposals for re-shaping house-marketing are fully justified and long overdue.

The severe reduction in the number of sellers putting their houses on the market is a clear indication of their concern for not being able to successfully move house, owing to the unexpectedly rising house prices!

The explanation of how to resolve accelerating house prices begins here. Read all about these fresh new proposals at the following link:

The House Price Solution

How to Improve all local housing markets in England and Wales

Posted by: Peter Hendry, Housing Valuation Consultant
Author of:– The House Price Solution otherwise known as The Hendry Solution.

We must face the housing affordability dilemma head on

Yes we must face the housing affordability dilemma head on.

We must very soon deal with the upcoming cost-of-living crisis in energy, fuel, food and housing which are the main essentials of increasing concern to those living on tight budgets in our newly independent country. Housing is the most expensive of these.

House prices have radically outpaced affordability at a time when western economies (both here and abroad), are on shaky ground. This clearly indicates that something is seriously wrong with the operation of our housing markets as far as house buying, selling, renting and letting is concerned.

If you agree with this then what follows is a considered assessment of how best to deal with this problem.

The explanation of how to resolve accelerating house prices begins at the following link

The House Price Solution

How to Improve all local housing markets in England and Wales

Posted by: Peter Hendry, Housing Valuation Consultant
Author of:– The House Price Solution otherwise known as The Hendry Solution.

House Prices v General Affordability:
We are able to offer consultancy services to government on this and other property-related matters.

The pages in this blog deal with the underlying reasons why the most troublesome housing affordability issue of our time has come into being over the years. It’s a marketing error not a national economic one and it is quite different from the old supply and demand argument which is generally trotted out by agents in an attempt to explain the matter away.

Constructive comments are very much welcomed.