Now is 'good time to buy property'

Now is the best time "in 20 years" to buy property, it has been claimed.

Speaking at the Landlord and Buy-to-Let show held recently in Birmingham, Paul Clifton from Residential Investments said that the current market conditions provide "the best opportunity for buying properties".

"In a busy market it's hard to buy good quality properties because the market beats you to it...the game is different now, the market is flat and now is the time to buy," he remarked.

He went to say that for buyers, it would be a positive thing if house prices continued to fall over the next few years.

Recent figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found that in September, the average house was selling for nine per cent below its asking price.

The biggest gap between asking prices and final figures was in the north of England (12.5 per cent), while in London the difference was 8.5 per cent, with a 2.4 per cent gap being recorded in Scotland.