I’ve seen at least a dozen houses go sale agreed (a couple straight to sold) since around the beginning of December where I am looking in South Dublin, there was nothing moving over the autumn selling season. Most of these houses would have been just over the old 635k barrier so there’s obviously going to be value realised by people with the stamp duty reform. Has anyone else noticed similar?
Incidently I was looking in the same area last year and there was no such effect, might have been due to these houses being priced beyond the first time buyer.
Nah - the same thing happened last year and then the huge supply increase in January buried the market once more.
Also - a lot of the previous sale-agreeds fell through.
noticed the same thing myself, just in the last week about 3 places went sale agreed
Have noticed a few go sale agreed myself in the area in the area my parents live
Have been watching South Dublin too. I did notice a few sales in early/mid September. A few sales fell through in November. Have seen very little happening (sales, sale agreeds, new houses on the market, price drops or increases) since the end of November.
A place near me has been Sale Agreed since last May - almost 8 months ago! A couple others have gone Sale Agreed in the last few weeks also.
This is my neck of the woods and I must admit, I hadn’t noticed an accelerating trend.
What I did feel was that the flow of new properties ground to a halt in December, which probably made sales more noticable.
Sale Agreed means absolutely nothing.
This thread is going to make crashandburn’s weekend!!! 
Dont bother.
Ive tried explaining this to those who fail to grasp the concept.
You are wasting your breath.
Sale Agreed demonstrates intent. Whether the counter-party gets the finance or not is another story. It’s far more of a commitment to buy than looking at the property on the internet and saying “I want that one!” Andy (little britain) style.
Incidentally if you go sale agreed you are supposed to forward a 10% deposit and have your solicitor draw up sale agreed contracts. I’m not sure that this happens with the way people have been pulling out of sale agreeds in the last year.
It’s the lenders that have been pulling out of sale agreeds not people…
And that’s far more important, than intent to purchase… Unfortunately, sale agreed has very much become akin to pointing at the TV and saying I want that… Not that I have ever watched Little Britain so I can’t reflect on the appropriateness of the analogy…
The deposit seems to be only a token amount (2.5%?) and is returnable until the contracts are signed by both parties. It is more an indication of serious interest than a risk by the buyer.
It is of course beyond the slightest possibility for disreputable EA’s to try to stirr the market by slapping a sale agreed banner across a For Sale sign 
Oh don’t be so negative. A lot of pinsters read posts, quitely nod their heads in agreement and don’t post cause there is noting to say.
As TUG said it is mainly the banks deciding to refuse finance. However, consider if you make an offer and then go sale agreed today Jan 12 2008. Now in 5 months when contracts are about to be exchanged you do a quick check on the price you’ve offered. It is gonna look too much after 5 months so are you going to close the deal? Especially when your senses have been sharpened for any newspaper article about property. When you are reading the gutter press you will no longer be getting the reassuring articles on how buying now is the only option. In fact the opposite is true.
Between the banks and the buyers the odds on a sale agreed moving to sold must be very poor.
The standard when you go sale agreed is to pay a fully refundable 2% deposit which shows your intent and in return the agent stops marketing the property. Then survey, valuation and legal searches need to be done and the contract drawn up. Once the survey and searches are back with no nasty surprises and the mortgage is in place are contracts signed and the non-refundable 10% handed over.
This will take between 3 and 10 weeks usually, it’s very stressful, but it does protect the buyer in the case of an issue arrising in the survey or searches. Unfortunately it also allows for gazumping and gazundering. There was a UK statistic, even in the height of the boom here that 1 in 3 sale agreeds come to nothing. I’d imagine that in the current market that figure will rise.