200 properties on market since before 2008

More than 200 of them were listed before the property downturn in 2008. And more than 1400 have been on the market for more than 1000 days.

This does not include properties that are withdrawn from sale and then relisted.

Property commentator Alistair Helm has outlined the data on his website Properazzi.

He says:  “As is often stated properties are not commodities that are placed on supermarket shelves, neither are they used cars which can be easily classified (there are many options for a five-year-old Toyota Corolla). Properties are unique. The pool of likely buyers for a property (who can afford it!) is never very large and the intersection of these prospective buyers and their desire to move at that time is in some ways a game of chance.  You might list a property for sale only to discover (or never discover) that the buyer who most wanted to buy just moved last week!”

He said sellers would have to make an impression to capture the biggest audience possible in a short period of time.

“If this campaign over a 4 week period fails to capture interest then the best advice in my mind is to withdraw from the market for a month or so and then try again. This approach gives you the most effective way of created ‘new’ interest each time.”