Reader poll: Are house prices falling?

A fifth of Estate Agent Today readers have claimed house prices are falling either nationally or regionally, a survey has revealed.

It comes as industry commentators Russell Quirk and Charlie Lamdin clashed yesterday over the direction of house prices on a newly released podcast.

An Estate Agent Today poll run alongside an article on the interview yesterday asked readers if they felt house prices were falling.

Respondents were given the option of selecting if prices were falling nationally, regionally on their patch, on other patches or not at all.

A fifth or 21% said prices were falling nationally and 19% said they have seen values falling regionally on their patch.

Another 10% said they felt prices were falling elsewhere while 50% said prices were not falling.

It comes as the Nationwide and Halifax house prices indices showed average values returned to growth early this year but more recent reports have shown declines on a monthly basis after the mortgage price war stopped.

Meanwhile, Lamdin - founder of Best Agent - has hit back following the podcast.

He told Estate Agent Today:  "Russell’s true talents lie more in publicity than objective analysis. I share his desire for a thriving property market, and we agree strongly that long sole agency contracts should be completely banned.

"But I despair at his inability to deploy basic maths in his analysis of house prices, especially the indices.

"For example, he keeps referring to the Halifax index as 'data' when in fact that index conspicuously conceals its actual data so that no analysis can be done, unlike the Land Registry which publishes its full data set for open analysis by anyone who wants to.

"It surprised me how strongly Russell stands up to politicians he disagrees with, yet is willing to lap up corporate lender PR as if it’s gospel, when no one has even checked if its calculations are accurate."

Lamdin said it is "headline-hunting" to suggest that his house price expectations of a 35% peak to trough drop are “dangerous”.

He added: "2023 saw the worst year for housing transactions since records began. Remember autumn 2022 when I warned agents that the market was going to be difficult? I was mocked.

"There is no bigger public supporter of the importance of what agents do than me.

"But perpetual price pumping propaganda is a large reason why transactions have fallen so sharply and agents are struggling.

"One well known agent who’s a senior member of a major agency organisation said to me privately that 'overvaluing is the death of our industry' and yet agents continue to want to talk the market up.

"Further, talking about nothing but price only exacerbates the problem of sellers choosing agents for the wrong reasons."

Lamdin said his BestAgent Public House Price Index will provide more transparency as it will report exchange prices as they happen, adding: "It will be published in full for detailed scrutiny and it will empower honest agents to confront the overvaluers who are killing the industry."