This article that I have just read in The Times is about the best example I've seen so far to show the topsy-turvy world of the current UK housing market.

The article is on how now is the time to sell your house because you stand a good chance of getting a good price, because low-stock levels mean little competition from other sellers. But it is also noted in the article that if supply increases massively it will likely drive prices down yet again.

So if everyone follows the advice of those in the article, then everyone will be knackered for getting a good price. The irony could be that, by printing this article The Times have given the game away.

We have been warning on this blog for many months now, that a rapid increase in supply would be detrimental to the future of UK house prices, and how the currently positive news threatened to make that a reality. However, it does seem that there have been a few shrewd people who have timed it just right in their area and got an extremely good price for their house.

If you do decide to follow the advice of the Times interviewees and check out housing supply and get started about selling your house, Zungalow offers a fantastic property advertising package for just £29 per year. Such a low price perhaps takes the risk out of sticking your toe into the house selling water.

Pricewaterhousecoopers have cautioned that UK house prices are likely to see further falls this year, to continue falling next year, and recover very slowly after a largely flat year in 2011.

Steve Denison, PwC Northern chairman said: "Although the estimated average UK house price overvaluation of around 25 per cent in mid-2007 has now been largely eliminated, our analysis suggests that house prices could still have further to fall over the next year.

"Despite some recent reports of rises, we are not out of the woods yet by any means. It is important for buyers to take a long-term rather than a short-term view.

"The pace of recovery in house prices seems likely to be relatively modest until the middle of the next decade, although it could pick up again beyond that as supply shortages re-assert them-selves, credit conditions return to normal and negative memories of the current housing bust fade."

There has been a lot of positivity in the industry press of late, after all the major indices began to show the annual rate of house price decline slowing significantly, and the indices of Halifax and Nationwide began to show consecutive monthly rises and even quarterly growth.

We have been cautioning on this blog that the current upward pressure on prices was fuelled only by supply shortages and that we were highly vulnerable to further falls in the near future. This from the well respected Pricewaterhousecoopers is one of the starkest reports on the future of house prices that we have read for some time.

Sell your house quickly and cheaply with Zungalow

The Little House Company, has unveiled a new paid-for service to allow private property sellers to gain detailed information about a property so that they can reach the best possible valuation.

As people continue to be disappointed with the length of time their property has been on the market for, more and more people are advertising their properties on private property sales sites like Little House and Zungalow, and adding a clause to their estate agents' contract so that they pay no fee if their private efforts sell the property.

Doing this makes their estate agent work harder and also gives them a better chance of selling their property in a timely fashion.

The biggest challenge to a timely house sale is an inaccurate valuation. During high times estate agents have admitted inflating house prices to make more money, and in the current (low times) climate estate agents have been known to inflate valuations to gain instructions.

That said; it is a good idea to conduct your own valuation, even if you have an agent value and then make a judgement based on all the information to hand. This is a good idea whether you plan to sell your house privately or not.

If you do not want to pay for the ability to do your own valuation, here is how you can do it for free:

 

1. Put your postcode into the Land Registry's index page

   This will tell you how much houses in your area are selling for

2. Use Nationwide's House Price Calculator

   This allows you to enter the value of your house at previous valuations to calculate how much it is worth now.

3. Take the two figures and apply a little common sense to reach your sale price

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has said that UK house prices will not fall by 10% this year, as they had earlier forecast, but we now look set for house prices to end this year slightly higher than last year.

RICS have also said that mortgage approvals, which have been rising for several months will level off at about 55,000 per month -- still historically low and not enough to bring substantial or prolonged upward pressure on prices.

What is putting upward pressure on prices in the current climate, RICS say is the fact that new instructions are at an all time low, having fallen for 26 consecutive months. RICS said that this, along with continually rising unemployment and economic contraction to make the current minor upturn very fragile indeed.

In fact the underlying sentiment of the RICS housing market sentiment was as the headline said: outlook improving but housing market not out of woods yet. In other words, yes it's great that prices are rising now but with the economic outlook still so negative there is likely to be a second dip.

Commenting, RICS senior economist Brigid O’Leary said:

"There has been a clear change in the housing market over the past few months and, as a result, it is unlikely that we will now see the kind of house price falls widely predicted at the start of the year. Instead, the return of buyer demand and the limited availability of housing on the market could be enough to support prices so it wouldn’t be surprising to actually see prices increase further from here in the short term. That would be consistent with more positive expectations that have been reported in recent RICS Housing Market Surveys.

"However, the outlook for 2010 is fairly uncertain and there is a real risk that prices may slip back again. Affordability is still stretched and mortgage finance, while improving, is fairly hard to come by. The positive news we have seen has been a recovery from record lows and there are still many uncertainties in the economy. In particular, we are concerned about the mortgage finance environment and the impact of further increases in unemployment on house prices."

As we all know, there is currently a lot of positive news in the housing market, with prices rising on a monthly basis for some months now according to some indices, by 2% since April according to the Halifax and Nationwide, and all indices including that of the government showing the rate of decline having slowed massively.

But as we all also know, this current reversal of the downward trend has not been caused by a massive upsurge in activity like you would expect if the market had bottomed, but is in fact based on a marginal increase in activity, which has acted in conjunction with a massive supply short-fall to put upward pressure on prices.

The trouble with that is, if supply increases faster than demand, the upward pressure on prices will evaporate and we will likely be in for further sharp declines as the actors putting downward pressure on prices, like the restricted mortgage market and soaring unemployment, are able to take their full effect.

Such a scenario would seem likely; as the positive news could well make the thousands of people holding their property off the market think that now is the time to go for the sell. With that threat seemingly hanging over us guillotine-like, it is easy to focus so completely on it to become blinded to any other possible outcome.

But is the positive news likely to make the holders sell now? When you think about it calmly the answer is no, not really; these people don't want to sell because of the losses they face on their property, the 2% increase barely bites into the 20% loss we have seen so far.

On the other hand: who wants to buy a house if it is going to lose even 10% of its value within a year, let alone the 40% falls some analysts were predicting a few months back? So it is surely equally possible that the currently positive news -- that has made even the likes of BOE guy say that the worst of the price falls are over -- would bring more buyers into play?

If the number of buyers was to increase greatly, faster than supply increases, which is possible if not likely, then this will increase the upward pressure on prices and accelerate the price rises and slow the rate of decline faster.

In this scenario, this continuation of price growth would indeed see supply levels start to increase, and this would be the beginnings of a sustained recovery in the housing market. The recovery started by shockingly low supply, well it's got to start somewhere.

Of course there are three very big problems, namely:

1. Unemployment is currently massive and still rising
2. Banks are still being very cautious about who they lend to (especially who they lend 125%LTV to)
3. Vendors still are not being realistic about their asking prices, according to Rightmove's latest index the average asking price of new additions to the site is 40% higher than the average Land Registry sale price. This is worsening the supply shortage

Sure, they are three problems, each capable of preventing my scenario from becoming a reality, not to mention the fact that with supply so short too many buyers may not be able to find a home suitable for them. The truth is no one can say with any certainty what is going to happen next. Time will tell.

House prices rose for the third consecutive month in June according to the Nationwide house price index. Also, the tri-monthly measure, widely regarded as the less-volatile and therefore more accurate, has now turned positive; with the average house price 0.9% higher in the three months ending June than the three months previous.

However, it is common knowledge that the current positive data is occurring because of supply shortages, and not because of increased transactions that you would expect if the market had bottomed. Even Nationwide admitted in their report that the current level of transactions, at 55% below the long-term average should be overseeing price falls, not rises.

This has analysts worried that prices will fall again in the near future if supply increases, which it may well do on the back of such continued positive data.

None the less, in our opinion sellers, especially those selling so that their family can move into much-needed larger house, must be selfish and think about themselves not the housing market.

If supply does increase now, then yes prices will fall again and possibly quite drastically. But for those who are planning to move in the near future now is the time to sell your house; sell-up now and get a better price than you will a few months down the line.

As we said in our last post, if you don't want to sell your house now because of the price falls, just remember that bigger houses are falling in value faster, so selling to trade up now is not as bad an idea as you may think.

Also the type of massive supply increases that analysts are worried about, will come only if the masses of investors and forced landlords see now as the time to sell. So, regular people selling their house to move, may not put downward pressure on prices. So you get the best price for your home, and then rub your hands and smile when the investors do let go and prices fall again.

Yes, it is true; UK houses have dropped in value by a great deal since they peaked in the last quarter of 2007. This can make selling a hard-pill to swallow; too hard for many people.

But what people must remember is that, while you are selling your house for less than it was worth, you will also get the house you want to buy for a lot less.

In fact, there have been reports according to the Land Registry, house price falls accelerate as you go up the property types, so if you want to trade up you may even end up gaining a little in real terms.

This current correction is far from over. Despite the currently positive news all the signs point to the slump being prolonged. Even if this is the bottom, then all impartial experts are forecasting that even when the market bottoms it will be several years before prices start to rise again.

Can you really put your life and or your families lives on hold for that long? If not register today and sell your house with Zungalow for only £29 per year.

According to the National Association of Estate Agents for every house put onto the market in May there were 4 buyers registering. This is as much a reflection of supply tightening as it is sellers increasing, although the NAEA did point out that estate agents sold an average of 10 homes in April, more than in any month since September 2007 when things went pear shaped.

The rising activity in the market, coupled with the Halifax house price index showing a 2.6% increase in house prices during May, have led to much more positive statements from NAEA director Peter Bolton King.

"This is one more indicator that the pent-up demand in the housing market is beginning to move. Our agents are reporting increased sales, more people wanting to look for property and a healthy resurgence in first time buyers," he said.

Bolton King also said:

"However it would be silly to speak as if the property market has recovered; and the Government must do everything in its power to help ensure that this is not a bubble. Specifically they must re-examine stamp duty, which is a tax on aspiration and a barrier for thousands of first time buyers."

But I think this was as much about him getting in another dig at the revered stamp duty as it was about tempering his incredibly positive statements.

So, if now is the time to sell property, now is the time to sell your house with Zungalow. It couldn't be easier, and at £29 per year it is far more affordable than the average estate agents fee of £4000.

I just got an article in my Google alerts, our good old friends at Write About Property have been giving us a bit of free advertising. Even if I do say it myself it is well deserved.

The article, titled Private Property Sales: Estate Agents £4,000 Private £29 centred around the fact that the estate agents fee, now far less flexible and fixed at the 2.5% mark is likely putting some people off selling their house, and how these people should try selling their property privately at fees such as the £29 charged by Zungalow.

It's true: when you're house has lost £30,000 off its value, paying £4,000 to sell it does stick in your throat.

One other good point the article makes though is: who cares about selling your house for the best price more than you do?

The answer is no one. When you have only spent £29 to have hundreds of potential buyers viewing your property every week on Zungalow, it leaves plenty of room for additional and possibly creative marketing, like as the article suggested embossing an image of your house onto the side of your transit van.

That sounds a bit whacky, but what about buying a page in the local paper or a board at the local football ground -- use your imagination.

The truth is, if your property is priced realistically it will sell through Zungalow, these other methods are just suggestions to try and accelerate the process. It is also worth mentioning that when you decide to sell your house privately you also have to do things like making your own for sale sign.

The downturn in the housing market has made estate agents less flexible about the rates, with many now sticking firm to the 2.5% ceiling.

During the boom, and even normal conditions in the housing market, sellers are able to shop around and barter with estate agents bringing their fees down to 0.5% - 1%.

Empathising with the estate agents it is fair enough, with fewer instructions it makes sense that they would try to charge more money for the instructions that they do get -- estate agents gotta eat too right.

But for sellers this is unacceptable. Millions of UK homeowners are currently in negative equity, and millions more are unable to market their property because they would not get enough for it to pay off the mortgage and buy the house they desire moving into.

For anyone on the borderline of either of those two situations, being able to knock a couple of grand off the estate agent's fee could make a big difference.

Of course the alternative, as we are not shy about saying is to sell your home without the estate agent through a private property sales portal like Zungalow.com, which allows private house sellers to advertise their home for £29 per year.