New build apartments are reducing asking prices accross the city area. We are glutted with luxury 2 bed apartments on waterfront and any other bit off land they can find here and there. They have a new habit now of buying businesses closing them down and putting flats on that.

The public is more stubborne though, if they can't sell and they can't they will just wait until they have to; probably at the same time a lot of other people have to. Rent out btl is harder for the owners and there is noticable rent reductions.

UpMyStreet show price of flats falling by 1 - 2 thousand to end September in Southampton. These figures are the land registry figures and are the actual paid for figures not guesswork. These are from a time when things looked a lot better although there were comments of unsubstantiated cost falls.

The student accomodation tower will open soon in town, housing hundreds of students decreasing demand for share houses around the town area. Planning permission to build a tower block for students in Bevois Valley is in.

Costs of the luxury apartments around are being cut significantley, one offers £10000 cashback.

Any info on problems selling etc appreciated.

Oh yeah! What happened to Ocean Village - somebody made a killing on selling that plot then.

I spoke to an estate agent about Ocean Village - he told me that there were 85 unlet flats there and that was before the main consignment of flats was finished in the new developement.

Lets face it though for such expensive gaffs they are boring and ugly.

As of 24th of November here are some stats extracted from the rightmove website. A lot of agents use this site but not all, so its not that accurate.

The figures relate only to flats and apartments.

1000's Quantity

50-60 3
60-70 21
70-80 31
80-90 54
90-100 87
100-110 77
110-120 88
120-130 81
130-140 60
140-150 48
150-160 49
160-170 38
170-180 39
180-190 40
190-200 30
200-225 42
225-250 51
250-275 18
275-300 11
300-325 6
325-350 6
350-375 7
375-400 5
400-425 0

Its a Total of 848 flats actually.

Rent PM£ Quantity

300-400 36
400-500 99
500-600 94
600-700 More than 100
700-800 64
800-900 25
900-1000 11
1000-1250 15
1250-1500 1
1500-1750 0



As of December 24, Flats and Apartments Only.

£1000's Quantity

50-60 3
60-70 13
70-80 27
80-90 46
90-100 87
100-110 70
110-120 84
120-130 78
130-140 57
140-150 51
150-160 36
160-170 52
170-180 43
180-190 37
190-200 42
200-225 54
225-250 46
250-275 18
275-300 12
300-325 6
325-350 7
350-375 5
375-400 1
400-475


Its 875, only a bit up on last month-you have to be carefull with these figures because I don't no what rightmove did to its listings when it changed the website to a more modern format. Have they in any way manipulated it to make things look better.

As of December 24, Flats and Apartments Only (RENTS).
£ Quantity

200-300 3
300-400 35
400-500 more than 100
500-600 more than 100
600-700 more than 100
700-800 62
800-900 32
900-1000 12
1000-1250 17
1250-1500 2
1500-1750 1


They dont give actual quantities once its over 100 so you will have to deduce for yourselves whats happening there.


24th January 2005

£1000's Quantity
50-60 4
60-70 18
70-80 27
80-90 52
90-100 82
100-110 80
110-120 more than 100
120-130 99
130-140 65
140-150 57
150-160 45
160-170 45
170-180 42
180-190 41
190-200 45
200-225 57
225-250 52
250-275 20
275-300 14
300-325 5
325-350 6
350-375 5
375-400 2

Total 963


£ Rental Market

300-400 37
400-500 91
500-600 more than 100
600-700 more than 100
700-800 62
800-900 39
900-1000 14
1000-1250 17
1250-1500 3
1500-1750 1

Total 464

6 months ago there were 30 for sale boards from various agencies outside the dell developement. Overnite they disappeared never to appear again. Does anyone know why and has this happened elsewhere.

Happens all the time when it becomes clear that only investors have bought into a development and they are all trying to sell their units. This proliferation of sale boards is extremely bad for business, so the developers usually ban "For Sale" signs being displayed anywhere near the development. The units are still for sale, but you can't tell that by looking at it; effectively, they are conning anyone who is looking to buy there into thinking that it is a popular development.

Plannng applications for Castle Way and the Mayflower car park add up to a total of 400 flats exactley. This on top of the current glut will not help prices in the central area. Barrats developement nr Queens terrace is well under way, probabley finished in 6 months, don't know how many flats. Many smaller developements around Shirley and Freemantle.

The number of for sale signs all over is increasing rapidly all over the place.

Thanks Gordon "No more boom and Bust eh".

I was told by some people that they had all been sold because it was a good link to london by train....

"Happens all the time when it becomes clear that only investors have bought into a development and they are all trying to sell their units. This proliferation of sale boards is extremely bad for business, so the developers usually ban "For Sale" signs being displayed anywhere near the development. The units are still for sale, but you can't tell that by looking at it; effectively, they are conning anyone who is looking to buy there into thinking that it is a popular development. "

Obviously not then !

Have you ever tried commuting from Southampton to London every day? It's about as much fun as having your nuts cut off with a rusty razor blade and dipped in TCP.

no i havent - i would hate to work in london! Must have been a local myth then that people are buying at the dell to commute to london whipped up when those for sale signs were removed - clever psychology.

As of 24 December. A definate explosion of for sale signs all around Shirley, Freemantle.

20% of new biuld flats near the Eagle pub have been sold to housing association.

Mcaleer an rushe have changed there mind about building the 27 flats at the Charlotte place developement and want offices instead. The old BT building has been bought and is to be flats as is the old trimwise building.

The number of new flats coming online next year is a minimum of 1000 and what the max is would be a guess there is a lot I don't know!.

Happy Xmas all.

I'm not surprized they're not selling at The Dell because of the state of the place. I lived in a flat there and now rent it. In Nov when I last visited, the central garden was still unfinished. Could someone tell me if its been done yet? I wrote to Barretts asking for an explanation but got nothing back. It was an eyesore and hardly promoted the place.
I'm also curious about a resident there they were trying to evict for antisocial behaviour. His flat was in the same block as mine. I'd appreciate any information on that.

The 30 or so new flats on Hulse road are now for sale and ready for occupancy.

The crane is finally down at Ocean Village and these are very nearly ready for occupancy.

There is a developemant next to the bitterne PH, Bittern, its quite a large Developement, ready in 6 months.

Flats near the now demolished lamp and mantle are ready for occupancy.

Still trying to get rid of luxury flats near Vespasian road of bitterne road west, these are sticky properties and have been hanging around for a year now!

The Woolston waterside developement due for completion 2006 is reported to be 1700 properties or 2500 depending on who you ask.

There are smaller developements all over Shirley and Freemantle and a new site has started this week on Hill Lane.


My general feeling is that prices have already come down and that when the figures are released people will be shocked. In this local area, economic activity feels down on this time last year.

NetHousePrice figures need to be analysed and I will report back when I have done so. Up my Street will be publishing there figures for end of December property prices at the end of Febuary and I will report back.

Courtesy of Nethouse Prices.

Small development in St Denys - all units very very similar

Sale Date Price
27-Apr-00 69000
3-Jun-00 78000
6-Apr-01 78000
24-Aug-01 88000
24-Aug-01 91000
21-Sep-01 93000
28-Jun-02 99950
26-Jul-02 108000
18-Dec-02 116500
12-Feb-03 119000
19-Aug-03 128000
21-Nov-03 126500
30-Jul-04 149000
4-Nov-04 131000
26-Nov-04 129000

Where to next I wonder ?

Take a look at this - now this really is cheap - relativley

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property/4936667

Comments Please?

Price is based on a 40% equity share....

This post by the way is refering to Ocean Village - an update on that; there is to be 8 Blocks in total but they are have difficulty selling all of Block 5 and have not therefore starting building the remaining 3 Blocks.


Dumping 20 properties on one development will have a very significant effect on the value of the other properties there. Given we are in a falling market the lenders will want a fire sale to recover as much as they can as quickly as possible -that means CHEAP.

On the present market it would be difficult enough to shift one or two properties in the Marina, but twenty.................

As Dr Bubb says, today's bargain price sets the new price standard for the others.

Oh dear!






It will have an effect alright cause they haven't even finished the site yet! They got two blocks to go!

75% sold at the town centre eagle pub block of flats. There are 60 flats, 35 are sold to keyworker and another 20 to housing association, that leaves 5 left to be sold privatly.

I've collected these of the other thread and put them here now I'll drop the other thread now!


Just looking at nethouse prices for the SO15 area, thats central, shirley and freemantle - good god only 23 completions in January 2005 do you know how much we got up for sale here. I mean is that two completions per estate agent or something. The spring bounce better be good!

In the echo last week (last week of January) they are reducing the sale cost of the 1 million quid apartments at Ocean Village by 15%. They are going to redesign the 2 remaining unbuilt blocks so that there will be more smaller and cheaper units at £150,000 a piece instead of £350000. Now the second hand sale of one of the smallest flats on that site was offered this week in the press for £129000 so I think they are still optomistic in my opinion.

Any Southampton EA's, want to leave hate mail you are most welcome!

Lots and Lots for Sale Int there!





Just looking at nethouse prices for the SO15 area, thats central, shirley and freemantle - good god only 23 completions in January 2005 do you know how much we got up for sale here. I mean is that two completions per estate agent or something. The spring bounce better be good!

There is a forum discussion about these figures at the moment that has not been resolved, untill it is, take these figures as a guide not fact, they may be seriously out of touch with reality!. Will let you know when satisfactorily resolved!.


The Persimmon site down St Mary's is as good as finished. It is a large developement of real nice flats and houses. Got to give it to the archetects its a smashing job, better than the repetitive crap going up elsewhere. They are housing association so many Chavs that have done nothing for society but bang out a kid and scrounge of the state will pick up there reward. The hardworking honest masses can look in envy while slaving for an old brick studio on a council sink! I mean doesn't it just amaze you!.

On the subject of housing associations I've noticed a number of finished developements that have not one tennant whatsoever, does anyone know why?. One is on Bitterne Road West, its eary, why leave them empty for months. The other is in West End on the old Lamp and Mantle site.

Private developents:

The Hulse Road site is completley done luxury 2 beds.

There are 2 large sites on Regents Park Road 53 * 2 beds and the other is a starter.

The Kingsoak Bitterne site is 50 % done and forsale now.

Multiple small developements around Shirley and Freemantle must add up to 50 Flats or near!

Obviously the Luxury Pads, finished, going up, or starting are suffering real downward price pressures now. This has been as good as admitted by the Ocean Village developers. There are still hundreds to come on line in the Central area so this is an interesting area to watch!.



The up my street website displays property price graphs under the property section constructed from land registry figures.

The graphs for Southampton show a fall in prices from there peek by 3-4 % to the end of December 2004.

This seems to have aluded people, it is a fact. I think it could be possible for prices to fall by 20 % before the majority of population realised what was happening. We shall see!






I have seen the plans for the Woolston developement on the Vickers site. It looks a bit bazare but they must know what there doing. Three times alternate office blocks and blocks of flats, I mean, a block of flats, offices then flats again etc.

Is it assumed that the office workers will live in the flats or something. There are to be 1500 flats and 60000 square feet of comercial, thats a lot; by when? I guess around 2007!



Planning permission for 725 houses on land in Hedge End has been agreed. I am not aware of a start date.

It has been reported that a property consortium has gone bust leaving twenty Ocean Village flats for disposal. This will not be good news for the developers who will not be able to influence the Sale Price of the second hand pads while still trying to get rid of the new ones.

To add to the woes of the Ocean Village developement, three other luxury flat developments will be ready for occupancy in the next few months. I'm talking about the three sites opposite New York's and on the Trimwise site.

Add to this that two more luxury developements totalling 400 flats exactly have not yet started and you see the prospects for price stability are not good. The sites are on lower town French Street and the Mayflower theatre car park.

The old BT building (Briton Street) has been bought by developers but I don't know what the plans are.

The flats behind the Eagle PH are near ready for occupancy, I think there are 50 2 beds, not sure!.




I'll add them up for you.

Hedge End 725 houses.
Woolston 1500 flats
Eagle PH 50 flats
Regents Park Road 53 flats
Other Regents Site 28
Planned City Central 400
In and around shirley 50
New Yorks + Trimwise 100
More Ocean Village 100
Ocean Village Syndicate20

Total 2796 Dwelling's A place where people dwell!

Do you know any more or have more acurate figures for above!.






I have just been looking at the rightmove website for southampton and prices are definatley falling across the board. It looks like about 10 percent on both buying and renting.

Without analysing the figures too deeply I have been watching this market for a few years I can asure you this is the case.

2005 is the crash year!

Found this on motley fool with the help of zzg.

http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=9259582


Well the upturn in activity is now well and truly a thing of the past along the South coast. The following anecdotal evidence absolutely confirms to me that we are now at the start of something pretty worrying.

I posted a few weeks ago about the glut of 2 bed 'luxury' apartments being built in Southampton. Well in Ocean village, they have apparantly stopped building them because they cannot sell the remaining units available on the previous phase. Agents are reporting buy to regret investors that bought flats are now panicking. No tenants - no buyers.

My mother in law works a one of the biggest builders Merchants in the country - absolutely dead apparantly - she has direct contact with directors of local housebuilders who have bought (smallish) plots of land in the last 18 months, but will not build on any of it. One company finished a site 12 months ago and still have 3 houses (out of 11) unsold. Another developer built 2 executive houses on the outskirts of Southampton a year ago. One sold straight away for £490k, the other one remains unsold despite the price reduction to £415k. You would expect the occuper of the 1st house to be absolutely gutted having pxssed away £75k, but no - he apparantly consoles himself with the fact 'that it's been a real luxury living next door to an empty house - it's so quiet and the kids can make as much noise as they like without us having to worry' - that's ok then!

A good friend of mine is a freelance quantity surveyor who specialises in groundworks (1st on site, 1st to leave) - existing deveopments are being finished, but absolutely no new residential work - except for social housing (he's very bearish and told me yesterday that he's expecting the 'Grandmother of housing mkt crashes')he rents btw - a luxury penthouse that he has negotiated rent reductions every year for the last 3 years).

I spoke to a client on friday who is a self employed builder - Earns good money when he's working, but now only works on average 3 weeks in 5. Told me of a firm of national building contractors (can't remember who they were, but had never heard of them when he told me the name) who have just laid off 300 bricklayers.

Finally, I have, over the last few months, developed a very good relationship a branch manager of a successful estate agent ( 20 years experience). This person is office based an spends her working day trying to ensure sales follow through to completion and compiling stats for head office etc. I've been sending them the RICS/Hometrack surveys when they come out and in return they have just started to open up as to what is really happening.

Transaction levels are the worst for 6 years - 40% down on this time last year. It now takes over 18 viewings to get an offer and of those accepted (many are not due to unrealistic vendor expectation), only 60% will proceed to completion. One guy I spoke to who probably earned (I'm guessing) £40-50k pa over the last few years in now on basic salary only and his wife has has to go back to work full time. He and his collegues know the market is absurdly overvalued and have got to a stage where if a vendor won't reduce the price, they just take it off the market and write to them afterwards. Also when taking the properties on, they're questioning the motives for selling - if it transpires that there cannot be any movement in the price at a later date - they don't take it on. Apparantly there are more and more people selling for financial reasons now - one poor chap who MEW'd to buy a BMW M3 convertible has just sold it, becuase he discovered that he couldn't afford to run the thing. Needless to say, the proceeds of the sale was not used to reduce his o/s mortgage balance.

Apologies for the ramble, but thought it might be useful.

Cheers

Taken from a previous thread

On the subject of housing associations I've noticed a number of finished developements that have not one tennant whatsoever, does anyone know why?. One is on Bitterne Road West, its eary, why leave them empty for months. The other is in West End on the old Lamp and Mantle site.


And to date they have not put any tennants into these completed empty flats, why!.

Still empty and its 21st May 2005.

Is that true, about construction being suspended at Ocean Village?

19th May 2005

I've just been down the Ocean Village site and nothing is happening on the developement land. I have been told that they are going to sell the rest of block five before starting six. I don't know if it is true but it does look that way!


Below is the rental situation from the rightmove site.Flats n Apartments Only As of 19th May 2005

Rent £/Mth Number

300-400 31
400-500 more than 100
500-600 more than 100
600-700 more than 100
700-800 more than 100
800-900 56
900-1000 17
1000-1250 12
1250-1500 6
1500-1750 1
None Above these prices.



The flats on the old Trimwise site are clearly finished and on sale with a great dressing of coloured sheets on the balconie's, can't miss it. The Barrats site next to it is looking months off completion. Next to that the BT building has been bought by Linden Homes and they have not started, that is a very big site though.


Cost and Quantity of Flats and Apartments As of 19th May 2005



Price £1000 Quantity

50-60 4
60-70 11
70-80 34
80-90 61
90-100 more than 100
100-110 more than 100
110-120 90
120-130 90
130-140 61
140-150 65
150-160 63
160-170 62
170-180 81
180-190 51
190-200 47
200-225 51
225-250 39
250-275 22
275-300 15
300-325 5
325-350 10
350-375 11
375-400 2
400-425 1
425-450 2
450-475 0
475-500 3
None more Expensive


Adds up to 1081 but this is a bit nonsensical because I don't know how many flats are in the 'more than 100' sections.

If you look back on the last page at the 2004 November December Figures which are similar to each other it is safe to draw some conclusions.

There are more flats to sell between 90 & 110 now than in January 2004, it is about a 20% increase.

The total number of flats to sell appear to have increased only marginally by 10 % but remember only half of the estate agents use rightmove and I suspect they do not advertise all thier flats or duplicates of them in the same block. If you want a better grip of these figures you may have to increase these figures by as much as 2.5.

It does suggest that the actual sell prices of most of the flats has dropped 10% between January 1 2005 and March 31st 2005 however the figures from the "upmystreet site" disputes this, (Link Provided Below). I think that the trend is distorted by an unusually high number of really expensive flats in the city that simply did not exist in previous data. This is supported by looking at the trends in the price off houses in Southampton etc, where "upmystreet" show clear drops in price in the same time period.


Flats

http://www.upmystreet.com/property/prices/...outhampton.html

Terrace

http://www.upmystreet.com/property/prices/...outhampton.html

Semi's

http://www.upmystreet.com/property/prices/...outhampton.html

Detached

http://www.upmystreet.com/property/prices/...outhampton.html

All Properties

http://www.upmystreet.com/property/prices/...outhampton.html


The situation with the rented flat sector is similar, there is an increase in the number of properties for rent between £400 and £800 but I can not tell you by what percentage.


In the local property press there are some interesting developements. Fox and Sons are advertising not only there periodic property auction in the main press but also some off the properties that are to be available. As far as I know this has not been done before and may show a new trend. For those interested in going to have a look, go to Southampton Park Hotel on Tuesday 24th May 2005 at 10 am. Its easy to get in but take some ID, have a coffee its free.

The Twenty Three developement on Hulse Road has been completed for some 2 months now. They don't look as if they are selling like hotcakes and they are not being pushed in the local property press either. Not like Kingsoak they have the mark of desparation they do, £99 and move in. I don't think that's the total price yet though.

In a bazare twist another biulding company admitted in the Press that there were 1000 flats under construction in the City. 18th May 2005. Now I can add a least 2300 in the City Center and Woolston that have planning but no start on works. Add to that all the smaller ones about 500 and the 750 Houses now agreed for Hedge End and my previous estimate is now looking realistic. If things go wrong in the market these sites may never be started as planned.

Another property company is offering to sell thier flats at 80% market value but if the property is sold on within 10 years at a profit, 20% has to be paid to them. They claim it is not shared ownership or a rent buy scheme. Anyway I have heard for the second time that sales reps on new developements have been told to except 80% of asking price if they have to do it to clinch a sale, so its no deal at all really.

Some estate agents have been refusing to take on anymore rentals because they have been having trouble letting the ones they have.

The new student accomodation nr Marsh Lane is still shut even though it is obviously finished. It may be because the developers also own Orion Point Student Res (St Mary's Road) and that is still not fully accommodated.

These student accomodation blocks are in direct competition with numerous BTL landlords and they could end up in a vicious race to the bottom over rental income.



CU next Month

Deano

Damn. I was going to pile in with an offer significantly under asking - about £50.

Nomadd

We're in Chandlers Ford, and have been out of the market for almost two years now...waiting for a significant drop in prices before buying back.

Your data on newbuild flats is great...and confirms my own findings around here.
Infact few and far are being sold, but what can you expect when a semi near me ( granted it is huge and has 5 beds ) is on the market for £415K!!!!!

I have noticed a clear two tier market around here...and I am looking for 3 bed detached.
A year ago you could not find a decent detached for under £250K , recently I have noticed some for about £235K...of course these are the ones which are selling.

I feel a crash coming on!!!

Went to Southampton Auction as planned May 2005.

I was really startled by the opening statement; "don't believe what you read in the press, remember bad news sales papers, we are taking more houses on and selling more of them".

This was a risky statement to make but he got away with it. I'm a bit paranoid I felt it was aimed at me. I am well aware that EA's ETC will track a poster like me and I am undoughtedly thier enemy in Southampton.

Six lots in Southampton went on offer, two sold prior to Auction so have no idea for how much. Two did not reach reserve and were not sold there and then, buyers are not told the reserve. Another two were sold but I can't say they were a bargain, I know the market well enough to tell you they were not far off the lower end of an estate agents price in thier areas.

One of these by the way was a part done developement of a Grand Victorian house in Shirley. It surprised me because it was previousley a Clydsdale job, in this area Clydsdale do a lot of house redevelopement similar to Principle. Why have they sold out - no idea.


Done a bit of research with Nethouse prices and you can see luxury flats (1 bed) going for £160 K around the Ocean Village area.

Next auction is July the 12th which seems like every six weeks, could anyone confirm that they were once every 3 months.

4th June 2005.

An interesting bit of anecdotal has come my way by word of mouth but I think the source is safe so here goes. In Southampton there are 22000 council properties, 60% of thier tenants are on full benefits and a further 15% are on part benefits.


Going back to the flat situation - In the first quarter of 2005, 200 flats were sold, exactly half that sold in the first quarter 2004. Now there are currently 1000 under construction so at that rate 20% will be unsold one year from now. By then of course there will be more under construction especially in Woolston, can you see what could happen.


PS Heres PaulW thread covering Warsash in Southampton.

Link

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...?showtopic=2300

This is from another thread in the main discussion but realevant here so cut and paste!

Link

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...pic=10500&st=20

BAT and Southampton.


May be he works for BAT.

On a more serious note, the place is in my area. The employee's have been on a very good wack and for a long time. The outside world will shock them. Many will have mortgage's on the quality houses in the area. I think most are actually unskilled though and will not be able to get similar earning occupations, so it will work through to that section of the local housing market.

Deano!

Courtesy of TMF, once again, some info about Soton...

http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=9391917

I've cut and paste it here from Motley Fool.

.............is a Marina development in Southampton. Lots of 2 bed flats at silly money mostly being sold to buy to regret investors who can't let them (or indeed sell them) for love or money.

Some are now being repo'd (surprise surprise) - just got off the phone from an agent dealing with one 2 bedder (no views, but brand new on 3rd floor) - don't know what it sold at originally but somewhere over £200k. It has to be sold by Monday and they are looking for.........


lower





down







more





£130k

2nd July 2005


Going through the property press yesterday I can tell you that prices are all over the place. An agency sell of a 1 bed Ocean Village pad is set at £145,000. Two pages on, a 2 bed Ocean village pad is to be auctioned by Fox and Sons, guide price £145,000, which would you want.

The Auction also has another 2 bed Ocean Village to handle. Its at Southampton Park Hotel, nr Civic Center, 11,00Hrs on the 12th of July. Anyone can go.

From Nethouseprices the 1 bed places were fetching £160,000 only months ago. Prices are callapsing in this section of the market.

As for thr rest of the property press, it's just made up numbers. I don't think anyone knows how to price and what to price anymore.


Barrats have joined in with Kingsoak on this pay 80% and now 75% of the price ballony. If you sell within 10 years you have to pay a share of the increased equity to them, or is it a share of the sell price no matter how much. I don't know.

4th July 2005.

This is worth a look at over on TMF. I've asked the chap to post here, don't know if he will. I'm not gona cut and paste because there is some kind of copyright issue running over at TMF.

http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=9395353

To anyone affected by negative equity.

My name is Philip Whiteside. I am am a journalist looking at the issue of negative equity.
It is becoming clear that more and more people are becoming affected by the problem. In today's Daily Mail the BBC newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky is revealed to have sold her house for £10,000 less than she paid for it four years ago. Many of those who have been affected are people who have remortgaged their house so that the value of their mortgage is now more than the price of their house. Others bought just before prices started to fall.

If you have been affected by negative equity, I would be very pleased to hear from you. Initially the conversation would be off the record, so we can get a flavour of what is happening across the country. If you would feel able to talk, please contact me at philipiwhiteside@yahoo.com or on 07782 194935.

wow, prices are unbelievably high in these areas, i come from india and believe me prices are getting unmanageble here too, i am lucky to have bulit my guesthouse in time before the land prices went skyrocketing. check my web site http://www.starboardhotel.com

Can one of you southampton observers attend the auction tomorrow and post a report, I can't go. Deano!

Oh, before I forget, we have a new estate agent on Shirley Road. It's called Destinations, the local agents will be so pleased to see the new arrival.

32 Flat, 32 Mistral, Channel Way
Southampton
Southampton
SO14 3JA
£180,000
Flat
Leasehold
Newbuild property
17 Nov 2003 Map(SO14 3JA)

FLAT 32, MISTRAL COURT,
32 CHANNEL WAY,
SOUTHAMPTON
REDUCED £145,000-£155,000
Sold for £150,500
TUESDAY 12th JULY 2005

Ouch!

I know the answer to the above 'Highlighted' now and this is scary.

You buy the property at 75% of thier own valuation, lets say £200,000. Now if you sell within 10 years you have to pay 25% of the properties new valuation, so if £100,000 then £25,000 if £300,000 then £75,0000. At ten years you will get a bill of 25% of valuation anyway. Are they taking the piss!.

Kingsoak and Barrat you are welcome to correct me.


Bye.

Deano!

With reference to Bitterne road west.
And now its 30th July 2005 and they are still empty, not a sole living there. Its a good 3 months since they were finished. I'm still trying to find out why!.

30th of July.

Just a quicky update to you Southampton market analysts.

Bellway homes are building at a rate of knots down off marsh lane there, that's off three field lane at the town side of Itchen bridge. Its a pretty developement of flats, if I had to buy, I'd be looking at these.

All over Shirley the smaller developements are becoming available, those on Regents Park Road, two sites, are ready for move in.

Barrat's have cleared a big site on Shirley Road I don't know what they are building but I will let you know.

The old BT office block (town Center) have the demolition team 777 on site and they've started work.

The Eagle Pub developement is nearly completed and shortly ready for occupation.

Vickers shipyard has started land clearance for the 1500 apartment developement but I don't know if they have started building.

Austin Adams have sold off a really big site in Northam on the waters edge. I don't know who to or what they will do with it but suggest waterside flats if they follow trend.

The estate agents seem to have decided that no studios will be advertised for less than £395 rent per month, all of them at the same time, I'm not suggesting collusion.

General feel good factor and ignorance about the property market still exists among the public - no doom and gloom.

You can get a good 2 Bed apartment in Shirley for £129,000 if you hunt for the repo's and an Ocean Village 2 bed for £145,000 if you watch the auctions etc.

Deano!

Deano wrote:

>You can get a good 2 Bed apartment in Shirley for £129,000 if you hunt for the >repo's and an Ocean Village 2 bed for £145,000 if you watch the auctions etc.

I am looking to buy a 2-bed flat (central) and have offered £165K for one that is currently being built in Hill Lane (initial price £175K). Am I paying too much?

As I'm a FTB, any advice welcome.

Thanks,
danni

The Echo page 12 on August 4th 2005.

This surprised me. In the section Soapbox' this lady Cheryl Jordan from Sholing appears to have done her research. Although she does not state her sources of info the latter part of the article makes compelling reading.

The article covers various biulding projects going on in the city under the title "City will be full to capacity"

In the third to last paragraph she states: There is, I note, a total of 6,215 residential units proposed.

b***** h*** thats double my own estimate of 3000 units. I don't know if this includes those in progress or not. If it does not then then the flat markets had it, IMO.

Danni, do your research. It took me 5 minutes to find a 2 bed luxury pad with waterfront views in a quiet area of Bittern advertised for £160,000, perhaps offer £150,000 for it. You are buying a 2 bed for £165,000 that has no descernable view of anything much, on one of the busiest and polluted roads in the city!.

Here's what I would do, The Flat Agency are the most realistic valuars of flats at the moment. Go tell them what you've done and challenge them to get a better deal by £15,000 in two weeks, see if they can do it.

Some new flats have appeared along the Portswood Road by The Brook (P.H. - lots of live music - surprisingly quiet outside). Very close to an industrial estate. No idea what they're asking for them.

Also isn't there some residential in the middle of that roundabout type effort near St Mary's? (might be office and hotel block too)

/G

Deano

What's the address on Bitterne Road West?

17th August 2005

McCaleer and Rushe "or a name like it" have nearly finished building the Hotel. Originally they were to incorporate some luxury pads but I think they dropped the idea in favour of office space. However there's plenty of office space in the city, with a lot more coming in Woolston. A lot of office space down by Queens Terrace has been available for years with no takers. The hotel will be alright with the cruise ships coming here, I've known tourists sleep in the coach station cause they can't get a hotel room for love or money when the ships are in.

17 August 2005

Don,t know, why!.

OK, head out of town over Northam Bridge, there! on the left somewhere up there. I just can't picture it sitting here but up there, is 'I think' 3 blocks, brand new. Haven't looked for 2 weeks so let us know when you have had a look.

deano

20th August 2005

Heres a link to the upmystreet average price of flats in Southampton to the end of June.

For the Southampton bears it does not look good. Prices have gone up across the board on all types of property. The volumns are not available from upmystreet and I think they will turn out to be pretty grim. No bust yet then but I have not changed my position on that. Its still going to happen!.

http://www.upmystreet.com/property/prices/...outhampton.html

Volumes are still down it could be that it's the upper end properties that are selling which would skew the overall average up.

2005 (apr-jun) £141,612 (375)

2004 (apr-jun) £137,829 (547)