Press Release: 00067

8 June 2008

Look, but don't touch!

Source: http://www.ukpropertyshop.co.uk

Property voyeurism, or property "porn" as it is now known, seems to have become even more of a national obsession recently. The fact that many fewer sales of homes are being made has evidently not diminished people's interest in the property market generally. During the last few weeks there have actually been record numbers of visitors to the UKpropertyshop website, although the proportion of visitors registering their interest with estate agents has continued to fall. However pollsters YouGov have apparently reported that almost 40% of us regularly search for property online and around 14% of property website visitors spend more than one hour a week looking at homes online.

The gloom and doom merchants are having a field day predicting dire consequences for home homeowners, without contributing anything useful to the debate. The fact is that banks have been pushing too much money into the housing market for too long and now we all have to pay the price for their greed, with new higher interest rates and much tighter lending criteria. For over a year pundits have been saying that property prices are too high and the chickens are now coming home to roost. House prices will need to come down to a level that people an afford, especially first time buyers, based on reduced mortgage funding. Added to this we have new uncertainty about the health of the economy and the prospect of higher fuel prices and other basic commodities.

Pity the poor house builders, who are in the front line. These are the firms who risk their businesses in order to supply our future homes and now find themselves up a creek without a paddle. What we need more than anything is a stable property market where normal people can buy and sell homes simply because they need to and not to make a profit. If the government really wants to get more houses built, it needs to take responsibility for the banking industry and get some sensible controls in place.

Moving Location Index (Towns) - May 2008

Rank	Town	County	Points
1	Dumfries	Dumfries & Galloway	151
2	Truro	Cornwall	124
3	Bournemouth	Dorset	119
4	Aberystwyth	Ceredigion	115
5	Kingston upon Thames	Greater London	114
6	Lincoln	Lincolnshire	113
7	Belfast	County Antrim	109
8	Brighton	Sussex	101
9	Eastbourne	Sussex	101
10	Guernsey	Channel Islands	101
11	Elgin	Moray	95
12	Chichester	Sussex	91
13	Skegness	Lincolnshire	82
14	Shrewsbury	Shropshire	77
15	Paignton	Devon	76
16	Falmouth	Cornwall	75
17	Newquay	Cornwall	75
18	Chester	Cheshire	75
19	St Albans	Hertfordshire	72
20	Aberdeen	Aberdeenshire	71
21	Selby	Yorkshire	70
22	Harrogate	Yorkshire	68
23	Blackpool	Lancashire	65
24	Watford	Hertfordshire	65
25	Lewes	Sussex	64
26	Kendal	Cumbria	63
27	Camborne	Cornwall	63
28	Jersey	Channel Islands	63
29	Cambridge	Cambridgeshire	62
30	Dorchester	Dorset	62
31	Totnes	Devon	62
32	Hull	Yorkshire	60
33	Sunderland	Tyne & Wear	55
34	Bexhill-on-Sea	Sussex	55
35	Berwick-upon-Tweed	Northumberland	54
36	Folkestone	Kent	53
37	Douglas	Isle of Man	52
38	Weymouth	Dorset	51
39	Ayr	Ayrshire	51
40	Perth	Perth & Kinross	47
41	Exmouth	Devon	45
42	Gillingham	Dorset	44
43	Barnstaple	Devon	43
44	Forfar	Angus	43
45	Worcester	Worcestershire	42
46	Ringwood	Hampshire	42
47	St Andrews	Fife	41
48	Waterlooville	Hampshire	41
49	Shipley	Yorkshire	41
50	Bude	Cornwall	40

Note for Editors about the Moving Location Index and UK Property Shop

The UK Property Shop Moving Location Index is based on data from a sample of people looking to buy a property and using the website to register their property search requirements with estate agents in each town. From this data a score is calculated according to the number who are considering either moving within the town where they live, or away from their home town and into another town. The Moving Location Index is not a measure of quality, simply an indication of the relative proportion of home buyers wishing to move into or out of a town, which is influenced by many factors.

The UK Property Shop website www.ukpropertyshop.co.uk was launched in 1999 and is a popular source of information for people looking to buy, sell, rent or let residential property in the UK. It also publishes the National Directory of Estate Agents, the most complete and up to date register of all UK estate agents and letting agents.