Prestige estate agent Fine and Country.....

Published:22 September, 2010

Author: tydemans

Prestige estate agent Fine and Country....

.....blamed property pundits for trying to talk the market into a self-fulfilling double-dip recession, after one expert accused some agents of being in denial.

While the organisation produced no figures it said that anecdotal feedback from its 200 franchised offices is that demand remains strong for 750,000-plus properties.

Chief operating officer Mike Bidwell said: ''All the evidence now points to a two-tier property market across the UK. Our offices are reporting healthy demand for those homes at or above three-quarters of a million pounds. At that level, people are still viewing, we're seeing good activity levels, and offers are being made at or just below asking prices.''

He added: ''Our analysis explains the widely contrasting reports published about the property market over the past few months. Many only reflect the position at the lower end of the market - which is a different world as far as the top 25% of homes are concerned. Our properties may not be recession proof, but they are at least recession-resistant.

''What's more, many of the more downbeat indices are based on mortgages which ignores the fact that nearly a third of UK sales are cash purchases.

''The negative portrayals of market conditions at the moment simply don't tally with what we're experiencing out there at the top end. It's my very real concern that some of the some of the more pessimistic pundits make fears of a double-dip recession a self-fulfilling prophecy.''

But housing analyst Henry Pryor said: ''There are still some property folk in denial, determined to assure us that the party is still in full swing.''

He said the reality is that asking prices are dropping ''at close to terminal velocity''. He added: ''It's like parachuting in the dark: hard to know how fast you're falling and impossible to see the bottom.''

He claimed that about 30% of properties for sale had had their prices 'reviewed' over the summer after average asking prices crept up to 64,000 above the average sales price recorded by the Halifax.

Pryor said: ''Part of this near-record gap reflects the greed of sellers, but those few buyers who have transacted this year have been savage, in some cases paying thousands of pounds less than the seller was seeking.''

Pryor produced research showing instances of house prices, all in the upper price bracket, having cuts of up to 28%.