Homes 'unsold all year' on stagnant UK property market » Housing » 24dash.com

One in four properties in certain parts of the country has been on the market for the whole of 2008 as the housing market stagnates, figures showed today.

Across the whole of the UK, 5% of homes that are for sale were first put on the market at the beginning of this year, according to property search engine Globrix.

But the situation is more acute in certain areas, with 26% of properties for sale in Rochdale, in Lancashire, having failed to sell since the beginning of the year.

Aberystwyth in Wales has also suffered from the stagnating property market, with 23% of homes that are for sale there failing to find a buyer since the beginning of the year, while 20% of homes in Swanage in Dorset have also languished on the market since January.

Property sales are running at around half of the level seen during 2007 as falling house prices are putting people off getting on to the property ladder or trading up it.

At the same time, many people who still want to go ahead with a deal are unable to raise the mortgage finance they need because of the credit crunch.

Globrix said towns in the North of England had been particularly hard hit by the stagnating market, with properties in the North accounting for eight of the top 10 towns which have the highest proportion of properties that have failed to sell during the past year.

Among the towns suffering from homes that have been on the market all year are Pontefract in West Yorkshire, where 18% of homes have been up for sale since January, while in Ripon and Wetherby 15% of homes have not sold in the past 12 months.

Around 14% of properties that are for sale have also been on the market since the beginning of the year in Shipley, West Yorkshire, and Oldham, in Lancashire.

Properties in cities have generally been less affected than ones in towns, with 5% of homes in London not sold after a year, and 6% in Birmingham.

But Manchester bucks this trend, with 13% of homes that are on the market having been put up for sale in January.

The group attributed this to the oversupply of new build properties and city centre developments, with these types of property hit hard by the problems in the buy-to-let market.

Daniel Lee, chief executive of Globrix, said: "It's been a terrible year for the property market. These end-of-year figures really do bring into sharp focus just how stagnant the property market has been in 2008.

"The gridlock in the market has been a result of the banks' reluctance to lend and an unwillingness by sellers to lower their asking prices to more realistic levels.

"Fortunately, in the past few weeks there have been signs that sellers are starting to accept that they need to drop their prices if they are going to attract buyers."