House prices and time taken to sell

SELLING your home can be an exhausting, stressful and frustrating experience. Will you ever find a buyer? How much will they pay? And how long will you have to keep your living room tidy for viewings?

An exhaustive study of the property market answers at least some of those questions, from how many viewings it takes to sell a home in every borough of London and the Home Counties, to how long the average sale takes.

In Merton, for example, properties take an average of three weeks to attract a buyer, while in Havering it takes almost seven. In Tower Hamlets you will have to show your home to eight potential buyers.

But in Richmond an average of 18 sets of strangers will tramp through your home before one decides to buy. The figures also reveal the huge disparity in prices across the South-East.

A terrace house in Kensington and Chelsea will set you back well over £1m - enough to buy a whole row in Bedfordshire.

The survey was carried out by property specialist Hometrack. Overall, its results show the housing market is looking healthy.

Hometrack's housing economist John Wriglesworth said: 'Expectations of interest-rate rises are having very little adverse effect on buyers, however the number of properties coming on to the market is falling. With excess demand already occurring in several boroughs, further house price rises are almost certain.

'Our new forecast for 2004 is an average of 3% increases across the boroughs. This is a sustainable level. A housing market disaster in London and the South-East is now firmly off the cards.'

London house prices rose by an average 0.3% this month, after a 0.2% jump last month. The highest rises were generally in the east and north-east.

As buyers return to the market, many of them keen to get on the ladder before prices rise further, homes are selling faster.

The time taken for a sale to be agreed is down to about five weeks, compared with 5.7 weeks in August, while the average number of viewings before a sale is agreed is 13.

With the exception of Buckinghamshire, the Home Counties have seen slight price increases. The average price of a home in Kent, for example, has risen to £150,000 for the first time.

Hometrack has noted that the number of property sales agreed rose sharply, by 9.6% this month, following a 1.3% increase last month.

But sales are still low compared with previous years because of the effects of the Iraq war, when sales were down by more than 30% in some places.

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