Is anybody paying full price for property these days?

[greenhorizonsproperty]

Hi All,

I just thought I would pose a question here based on my own observations recently.

Given the current world financial problems, is anybody actually paying full price for property these days?

I have recently seen a lot of deals being offered by both developers and private investors where there are staggering discounts (sometimes up to 50%) on either the current developer price or the current market values as appropriate.

I think this kind of deal is going to become more prevalent in the coming months. On the one hand, developers are under increasing pressure to sell their properties quickly at whatever price they can get or risk defaulting on their loans. On the other hand, and rather more sadly, there are an increasing number of private investors who have been preyed upon by unscrupulous sales people over the past couple of years, overcommitted themselves on the purchases they made "safe in the knowledge" that they could resell their properties before they had to complete on them, and are now finding it impossible to raise the funds to complete their purchases. I recently saw an offer from a major Spanish developer who were offering apartments for 50% of the original price, simply because the original purchasers had defaulted on their contracts. The developer was happy because they had already collected 60% or so of the purchase price from the original purchaser, now they were getting another 50% from a new source; not bad business for them eh?

So who is paying full price these days? And if you are, should you be when there are so many deals around? I have become aware of deals of this nature in Spain, Florida, Bulgaria and Egypt already and have hardly scratched the surface.

What do you all think?

Colin

[oregon woodsmoke]

This is a forum with investors. I would hope that nobody on this forum has ever paid full price for any real estate.

Yes, the homeowners are still paying close to asking price for properties. The average reduction that they are getting in this area is 3% off list price.

List price has gone down over the last year, but it's not even thinking about being 50% off.

Some investors areg getting 50% off, but investors aren't buying wholesale, and they know where and how to get the bargains, and they are willing to do all the extra work to get the good prices. The generaal home-buying public is either not in the know, or else they are intimidated by the process and won't try it.

[Lysos]

In any market/location asking price and realistic price are invariably very different. Developers are quoting ridiculous asking prices so they can appear to be offering a substantial discount, A modicum of research would show realistic prices. Ignore agents hype at your peril !. Remember, they are only concerned with commission. One outfit, who cannot be named on any forum for fear of expensive litigation - even thought the party being questioned (three initials) has been 'exposed' in the media - gets 15% commision per sale, which is why, according to the Sunday Times (and others) their sales people will tell you whatever you need to hear to get the sale. Read the sorry tale of buyers in Monte Santo, Portugal as just one example.

[Damian George]

Simple answer is no - uk prices falling, spanish prices nose diving, US in state of shoucl and awwhhhh

i would offer 50% off minimum and work from there