What's my house worth? Huddersfield estate agents on property prices and negative equity

Sep 1 2010 by Kevin Core, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

HOMEOWNERS caught in the negative equity trap in Huddersfield face a long wait before seeing a profit on their houses.

Local estate agents have backed up figures from the National Housing Federation which say those who bought at the peak of the housing boom in 2007 face a four-year wait to turn the corner.

Negative equity occurs when the value of a house drops below the value of the loan used to buy it.

Independent forecasts in the study Home Truths 2010 have shown people who bought at the height of the boom paid on average £216,800 – and this average will have risen to £226,900 by 2014.

The picture is familiar to Paul Keighley, a partner at Bramley’s Estate Agents in Huddersfield.

He said: “People in Huddersfield are in a similar situation.

“Anybody who bought at the peak in 2007 saw a 15% or 20% drop so for them to get back into positive cash flow on their property could take that long.

“It’s difficult to put a definite figure on how many people in the area are in that position.

“There are some good signs in that there are people who are waiting to move and repossessions seem to have slowed.

“Until the banks start lending to first time buyers at reasonable rates, however, it will be hard for the market to get going.

“The situation for those people is a minimum 10% deposit, but add to that legal and survey fees and arrangement fees for the lenders which could run into four figures in certain cases.

Simon Blyth, of Simon Blyth Estate Agents, is more positive about the situation locally.

“In Huddersfield the level of borrowing against the value of a house is less than the national average,’’ he said.

“People view their house as a home as well as an investment.

“The figures released will be dominated by the south and they tend to get more jittery, but in Huddersfield and district there’s a bit of a longer-term view.