Sellers tune in to buyers' expectations

Monday, 13 June 2005 12:00 AM

The expectations of house buyers and sellers converged during May, offering further evidence of stabilisation in the housing market.

For the last nine months, sellers had adopted a more pessimistic view of the housing market than buyers, creating a standoff whereby buyers wanted prices to drop but sellers were standing firm.

But Propertyfinder.com's survey for May reveals that the expectation gap has begun to narrow.

Last month sellers were prepared to entertain offers 4.4 per cent below the asking price on average, while buyers were typically asking for 4.6 per cent below the asking price.

This difference of 0.2 per cent is equal to £360 off the average house price.

Propertyfinder.com's managing director Jim Buckle said: "The housing market is stabilising and the stalemate between buyers and sellers is finally beginning to dissolve. Greater activity on our website is a further sign that conditions are improving. We don't see a return to boom and confidence is likely to fluctuate in coming months but a crash is clearly off the cards."

Just over a third (34 per cent) of househunters expect house prices to fall over the next 12 months, while 54 per cent expect prices to rise.

The number of people expecting interest rates to rise further has also fallen from 57 per cent in April to 33 per cent in May.

Propertyfinder.com is predicting interest rates to end 2005 on 4.5 per cent.

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