Its said that 2012 will remain challenging for the housing market and vendors will have to be increasingly knowledgeable about their local housing market if they want to sell.
Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said: “The market fragmentation caused by the credit crunch means that success in selling now requires a very careful and complex local market analysis.
“As always, it involves location, but the number of mortgage-ready buyers you can attract is now dictated by the type and size of property that you are selling. With all but the most appealing properties, pitching at too high a price and waiting for offers is a route to stagnation.
“Four years of increasingly dire economic news have also trained consumers’ brains to look for stand-out value from day one of marketing. Welcome to the complex world of your very own local ‘micro-market’.”
While Rightmove believes a lack of new sellers – down a third on pre-credit crunch levels – will underpin prices next year, increasingly savvy buyers will force sellers to be far more realistic about pricing in order to have the competitive edge.
Shipside said: “In the volume market of 2007, an average property at an average price had a good chance of selling. In 2012, average on any count will not be good enough.”
Rightmove said that asking prices will rise around 2% in 2012, with significant differences across the regions of England and Wales, leaving inflation-adjusted house prices 8% down in the last two years.
