quite a drop

[martin]

my mother has just sold (waiting promissory contract this week) 2 bed very large villa with 10000 sq metres of land in quiet country area, 6 months ago it was 399 then reduced to 349 then 325 ..she has now accepted an offer of 280 less agents fees etc so she will end up with about 259 and including about 2000 euros worth of furniture..just about enough for some "apartment" in albufeira!!

personally I feel sick that so much has been lost

[laserblazer]

Everything is relative Martin. Hopefully, she will get a similar deal on her new property.

[martin]

shes 91 so I don't think shes on the property ladder anymore, anyway when ever I hear about property owned by the Portuguese they put their prices up when they don't sell..and they wont shift at all on price because they are so rich they do not need the money

[Bristle Si]

I wouldn't be too despondent Martin.

As i reported on here last week after our return from CVO, the estate agents in CVO are playing a deceptive game. Advertised House prices in CVO are well-overvalued in the 'windows', so leading to false hopes for sellers and effectively turning away prospective buyers.

We're in a property downturn, that i believe will gather pace over the next 12 months.

[martin]

I understand your point, yet when I look at uk prices I don't see 1/3rd off the asking price being accepted

[martin]

there is also the factor that many villas here are second homes, if like my neighbor who has his for sale, if you're rich enough to have a second home worth 350 then I can see no financial pressure to sell

[Gary/Gaynor]

Martin

I know quite a few people who are trying to sell there homes in the UK and some have been up for sale for over a year and still no joy. The crunch times are ahead for the UK as many of Labours subsidies for one are now being withdrawn and maybe you will see house prices dropping there by 30% its happened before look at the early nineties. It all boils down to what the first time buyer can afford and that is very little at todays prices. Hopefully they will drop to an acceptable level which will give our children a chance. As for second homes in the Algarve well that is a luxury which many now cannot afford. You never know this time next year you may be glad to have got (sorry your mum) €280,000 (about 12 times your average UK wage).
Reality seems to have evapourated.

Gary

[EMM]

Look at the positive side, your mother sold in a market with very few buyers.
E250k will buy a very nice apartment as being a cash buyer she is a rare commodity, she will be able to pick and chose .

Obviously there are two types of sellers, those who want to sell and those who NEED to sell.
It is the latter catergory who are setting the current market prices.
Agents listings probably reflect 90% who want to sell and who do not need to make substantial reductions or take silly offers.
Many are probably covering their costs with rentals and can take their time before selling.

If you have a market with very few buyers then substantial price falls will do little to re activate the market.

For thsoe real gloom and doom merchants forcasting 50% falls in property values do they also accept that were this to happen we in the west would be plunged into a further deeper recession linked to another banking crisis and 100,000s of homeowners would be living in properties the values of which are lower than their mortgages which they coild not repay.

Sounds familiar , that is what happend 2 years ago in the States triggering off the banking crisis and global recession.

[cereza]

It may be annoying martin but regretfully it is reality. The value of anything is decided by how much a buyer is prepared to pay - nothing else. Forecasts are notoriously wrong as they are only guess work ( albeit sometimes educated).
At the moment the UK market has a massive problem with the supply of mortgages and while this exists there will be fewer buyers resulting in less transactions and lower prices and this spills over into the Algarve market. Regretfully until lending returns to anywhere near previous levels then we will remain with depressed property prices and those buyers with the finances will be able to pick up bargains.

[fmm]

For a two bedroom villa, that doesn't sound that bad to be honest. It sounds rather more like the estate agents were bigging up the price in order to get the deal with you to sell. ANyway - at least it is sold and there are no more costs associated with keeping it running, which has to be a good thing.

[blue]

We recently had to sell my Mother's place in the UK & had to drop the price quite a bit to get the quick sale we wanted, but she had had the place a number of years & considering what she payed for it we can't complain, even with the drop in sale price, a very, very healthy return on her original investment.
Looking at the prices out here I'm amazed at how high they are & how little you get for your money. Which is why we became country bumpkins, got a lot more for our money in the sticks.