City Residential: Sales hit all time low

A total of 43 sales have been completed in Liverpool's city centre residential market in the first quarter of 2011, according to the latest report by local agents City Residential.

Alan Bevan, director of City Residential, said: "The first three months of the year never promise too much in terms of activity as this quarter has proved. Sales continue to prove very hard to come by with a limited number of motivated sellers and buyers proving difficult to match in terms of price expectation.

"Whilst there are plenty of vendors who would like to sell, the vast majority are unable to sell at the sort of prices that buyers want to pay. This has resulted in the extremely low level of legal completions we experienced in the last quarter (to 7 Feb 2011). At just 43 completions for the quarter we have hit an all time low and begs the question how so many agents in the city are still trading?"

The report said the average price of a two bedroom city centre apartment is £116,400, which is a drop of 8.27% on the average price during the same period 12 months ago.

Bevan adds: "Our figures show a 0.89% decline in prices during the quarter. The national house price indices/commentary has been telling the story of low activity and reasonably static prices.

"Nationwide reporting a quarterly change of +0.6% nationally and +0.3% for the Northwest. Lloyds/Halifax reported a -0.6% reduction for the quarter which reiterates the lack of progress the market is making."

Within Liverpool's city centre residential lettings market, Bevan said it has found "an extremely good level where supply continues to remain fairly light and tenant demand holding up well".

Bevan said: "Stock levels have increased during the first quarter with the release of more units at Kings Dock Mill, the first units at Mann Island and some smaller schemes such as Moss Street completing sales to investors.

"With further releases from all of these schemes and new schemes such as Kings Waterfront there will be a steady and increasing supply. We do expect the market to take this in its stride, however accepting that maybe one or two of the older less attractive blocks may suffer as a consequence of the better quality and located newer released schemes."

The report said the student market in Liverpool has become increasingly important and claims the number of bedrooms aimed for students, which are completed, in planning or proposed, totals 15,123.

City Residential also claims the total number of students currently living in the city is 12,801.

The report is published by City Residential in association with PR agency Paver Smith.