Stark reality of property market or headline scaremongering?

“A family home has had its asking price slashed by 40 per cent in what is believed to be the capital's steepest property reduction” wrote the Evening Standard.

“The six-bedroom Victorian house in sought-after Bedford Park went on the market in early March for £3.2 million. Since then, the collapse in interest from buyers has forced the sellers to cut the price, first to £2.6 million in April, then to £2.25 million in May and finally to £1.9 million this month - a total reduction of £1.3 million.”

The figures are correct but the facts are not. A little local investigating uncovered that the home on Fairfax Road was initially put on the market with a price tag of £3.2m to “test the water” however, after a number of viewings but no offers; it was reduced to a more marketable rate of £2.25m.

When personal circumstances forced the vendors’ hand, they decided the best way to move quickly would be to reduce the asking price to a really attractive level and get immediate interest.

So far from being the “starkest example yet of how the credit crunch and dearth of buyers has driven down asking prices” it was, according to a source, “was simply a case of personal circumstances had changed.”

Christopher Simon of Faron Sutaria said, “Realistically priced properties are still selling, it is just taking longer to get buyers out to view.”

The Fairfax Road property, which was being marketed by Faron Sutaria, is now under offer.

June 27, 2008