Acton Property Market Grinds to a Halt

---

Agents could face closure as volumes halve

The year could be a miserable on for local estate agents as new figures show that the number of propertes changing hands in the local area is falling rapidly.

The latest set of fnumbers from the Land Registry show that home sales in the W3 area fell by over 50% compared to the same time last year.

With only 146 properties changing hands in a three month period the market is as quiet as it was during the period of uncertainty following the September 11th attack on the World Trade Centre. The rest of the country also saw a fall in volumes but not to the same extent as Acton.

The news on prices was somewhat better. The figures show that the average price of a Acton property is now £262,777. Acton prices are up by 14.5% over the last year compared to a 6.2% rise for London and a 11.8% national increase.

Stephen Rodgers of local property finance specialist Berkeley Consultants commented, "Although we are experiencing typical down valuations within the remortgage market, purchased property does not seem to be having the same problem. This would suggest to me that agents are valuing accurately at the moment."

Property Prices in Acton Oct - Dec 2004

Area	Detached		Semi-Detached		Terraced		Flat/Maisonette		Overall
	Av Price £	Sales	Av Price £	Sales	Av Price £	Sales	Av Price £	Sales	Av Price £	Sales
W3 0	0	0	330325	6	329462	9	223300	5	303180	20
W3 6	0	0	364992	7	252714	7	195539	19	243611	33
W3 7	0	0	288125	4	338416	6	200253	25	233980	35
W3 8	0	0	0	0	298437	8	212108	23	234386	31
W3 9	0	0	466713	7	401581	6	223634	14	326198	27
Overall	-	-	373183	24	321157	36	207528	86	262777	146
Change in Quarter	-	-	-8.2%	-41.5%	-6.6%	5.9%	5.0%	-31.7%	-0.8%	-27.4%
Change in year	-	-	6.1%	-31.4%	-1.4%	-21.7%	17.2%	-52.7%	14.5%	-45.7%

February 15, 2005