But falling volumes mean the news is mixed for estate agents

The latest set of figures from the Land Registry suggest that the average price of property sold in Putney has reached an all-time high. It has reached over £380,000 after a 11% rise over the last year.

However, the property market is far from buoyant with the number of transaction continuing to be extremely depressed. They have halved from the same period last year. Volumes in the rest of the country were also down but not as severely as in Putney.

In the longer term the performance of Putney property appears to be impressive with a 27% rise over the last three years and 56% over the last five.

The lack of sales have led to some agents becoming increasing desperate and several residents have contacted us to complain about the volume of leafleting that they have been receiving recently. The failure of the traditional agents to market properties successfully is resulting in some Putney residents considering selling privately or using specialist on-line brokers who are increasing market share.

Prices appear to be a mixed bag falling from the previous quarter but still up from the same time last year. Prices rose by 12% over the quarter but this appears to be largely down to an increase in transactions at the top end of the market. Prices of terraced houses and flats fell over the quarter. Over the last twelve months terraced houses are up 6% and flat up 3%

James French (left) Associate Director of local agent Douglas & Gordon commented that;

"The dramatic price increases in Putney during 2005 are a direct result of lack of supply of good housing stock with many home owners prefering to stay put rather than moving and potentially increasing their mortgages even further. We have seen this slow down in spending not just in property throughout the year but in the High Street and in many other related businesses - people are mortgaged and credit carded up to the hilt. The predictions for the latter half of the year is one of sensible trading but we do hope the supply of property increases."


"Putney is a very competitive area to work in if you are an estate agent!!!!!!!!!!! and in this business sales staff are paid on commissions of properties sold. Therefore as properties traded diminishes so do their salaries so we have to maintain our marketing strategies to keep ahead of the competition. One piece of advice re doing a private sale without agents being involved - how do you know that you have achieved the best price without all the marketing - advertising - boards - agents database of buyers etc etc that your sales agent will employ??? "

The rises in Putney were well ahead of the national average property price which was up by 5.4 % to £184,924 over the same period whilst the average price in London rose by 4.6% to £293,349.

Copyright notice: All figures in this article are based on data released by the Land Registry. The numbers are derived from analysis performed by PutneySW15.com. Any use of these numbers should jointly attribute the Land Registry and PutneySW15.com.

August 12, 2005