Sellers: drop your price and get out now

Sellers who hang on to their property in the hope of getting a good price are deluding themselves. And so are those who think they can rent it out for an easy profit, says Ruth Jackson.

A stand-off is developing in the property market between sellers and reality. Despite the collapsing market, too many sellers are refusing to drop thier prices in order to sell. Instead, as the weeks pass, they are choosing to hang on to their overpriced properties and rent them out instead. "Homeowners who need to move are switching from selling to letting, preferring to depend on rising rents and yields to keep them afloat as they wait for more favourable lending conditions," says Karen Dugdale in The Observer.

You can see the attraction of this. As far as the optimistic owners are concerned, falling prices are a blip. They figure that if they just hold their nerve by renting out their houses for six months, they'll then be able to get it away at the asking price when conditions return to "normal". Unfortunately, this isn't very likely, not, as Lucy Denyer and Emma Wells in The Sunday Times put it, "with the gloom worsening" and Merrill Lynch forecasting that it will be 20 years before the market regains its highs in real terms. And being a long-distance landlord isn't exactly a piece of cake.

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Ruth Jackson-Kirby

Ruth Jackson-Kirby is a freelance personal finance journalist with 17 years’ experience, writing about everything from savings accounts and credit cards to pensions, property and pet insurance.

Ruth started her career at MoneyWeek after graduating with an MA from the University of St Andrews, and she continues to contribute regular articles to our personal finance section. After leaving MoneyWeek she went on to become deputy editor of Moneywise before becoming a freelance journalist.

Ruth writes regularly for national publications including The Sunday Times, The Times, The Mail on Sunday and Good Housekeeping, among many other titles both online and offline.