So, is there a bubble in London and is it the media's fault?

The big question is: is there a bubble, will it burst, and if so when?

This is actually not an issue for the majority of the UK’s housing market.

However in London, we have what looks suspiciously like some estate agents talking the market down.

An article in the Financial Times quotes Ed Mead – who last week challenged Rightmove over its house price survey – as saying: “Buyers have the whip hand and until sellers’ expectations lower, the market, in central London at least, will remain partially stalled.”

He says sellers are on average asking for about 10% more than buyers will pay.

The article also quotes commentator Henry Pryor, saying: “Sellers think that happy days are here again and are pricing forward as a result. Buyers are more circumspect and those who benefit from the sanity check of a mortgage valuation are going to find it frustrating. The problem with rapidly rising house prices is that valuation models don’t keep up with the pace of sellers’ expectations and deals unravel.”

Then there’s Charles McDowell, a London property consultant, who told the paper: “Sellers’ expectations are being fuelled by headlines they read in the media rather than specific data, which doesn’t necessarily give an accurate picture.”

However, not all London agents seem to be taking such a line. Yesterday, Peter Rollings, boss of Marsh & Parsons, said: "Property is changing hands in record time and for close to, and sometimes above, the asking price. We currently have 18 buyers registering for each available property and there is no sign of this slowing down."

Agents both inside and outside London will have their own take on this, but it would certainly appear London agents will have an uphill battle to persuade sellers that there is no bubble and to lower their prices, judging from another recent article.

The columnist, who lives in London, says that prices on his home turf are mad and that the bubble will burst – because they always do and it’s no different this time.

Simon Lambert also says that Rightmove’s reporting of new asking prices in the capital going up 10% in a month rings true with him. He says that where he lives (north London), people are not only asking high prices but getting them.

His local grapevine is, he says, a steady dripfeed of “wildly optimistic estate agent valuations”, which translates into properties being put up for sale and near-asking prices being accepted.

“Things have gone bonkers even by the usual standards of London’s over-inflated house prices and rents,” says Lambert.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2473631/SIMON-LAMBERT-Londons-house-price-bubble-burst.html#ixzz2ipjWIt8K