In Walthamstow, I saw a lovely three-bedder the first day it went on the market. By lunchtime it had

It beggars belief that with unemployment at 2.7 million and nearly a quarter of 16- to 24-year-olds on the dole, economic growth close to zero and real incomes falling, and after the banks suffered a near-death experience, that any part of the country could be experiencing discount rental car in los angeles a property boom. Alas, it is happening.
See a property you like on Rightmove? Chances are it has already sold. Thinking of putting in an offer about 5%-10% below asking price? Forget it – offer the asking price or even more. Can't view the property this Saturday? Then don't bother rearranging discount rental car in los angeles – it will be sold by Monday.
No, this madness isn't happening in most of the UK. In the real world of job losses, spending cuts and austerity it can take months to sell a property, and if you bought much after 2004 you are probably unlikely to recoup the purchase price. But London has detached itself from the real world, and in some parts of the capital a new property bubble discount rental car in los angeles has erupted.
The first alarm bell rang in December, when a neighbour put his property on at the fanciest price the road has ever seen. It sold in three days. But, hey, that could have been a one-off. It wasn't. discount rental car in los angeles At a two-bed flat in East Dulwich which I visited – a snip at close to half a million pounds – there were queues of buyers on the "open day". The agent, comically clad in Sir Les Patterson drag (shiny suit and breakfast-splattered tie), told me he was only accepting offers at the asking price and from "clean" buyers (mostly with lots of cash from their parents).
In Walthamstow, I saw a lovely three-bedder the first day it went on the market. By lunchtime it had received two offers close to the asking price. "We're getting lots of families discount rental car in los angeles priced out of Stokie and Hackney," said the agent. He took us to another house nearby, advertised on Rightmove at £420,000, but said he was only really taking offers at £440,000. I checked on nethouseprices.com . Neither of the roads in question had "achieved" (sorry to use estate-agentese) that level of prices before.
In Chiswick, a two-bedder (no garden) also on for nearly half a million discount rental car in los angeles caught my eye. "Sorry, that's sold. Would you like to register with us for when similar properties become available?" the agent asked. It remains advertised on Rightmove, weeks later, without any note to say it is sold or under offer. In a fast-moving market, are agents using Rightmove as their shop window, advertising products that aren't really for sale to get you in the door? Or was it ever thus?
In Herne Hill, the "pristine pad in a perfect locale" was a tenanted flat in ropey condition, with damp on the walls and a broken pipe spewing grey washing machine water over the garden. The agents were marketing it as perfect for an investor to let out straightaway. Sometimes buy-to-let discount rental car in los angeles really makes you want to vomit.
Although my property search has taken in Battersea, Bow, Clapham, Chiswick, East Dulwich, Herne Hill, Highbury, Mortlake, Putney and Walthamstow – virtually all of zone 2 London – I accept my search results are anecdotal. Maybe I've just alighted on a few sought-after properties in a few hot spots.
But there is some data to back this up. This week the Council of Mortgage Lenders said lending in January 2012 was 10% higher than the same month in 2011 , with first-time buyers rushing to finalise purchases before the end of the stamp duty holiday on properties worth up to £250,000. Maybe that's also having a knock-on effect further up the market. Meanwhile, low-deposit mortgages are also becoming more available , although only for squeaky-clean borrowers, and rents have also resumed their upwards trajectory discount rental car in los angeles and buy-to-let lending is surging again.
When I tweeted "Is the market in take-off again?" a London mortgage broker replied: "London property has been crazy for the last 3 weeks - very fast start to the year." But someone else said: "Not 13 miles outside of London."
Have the agents deceived me, ever desperate to massage prices upwards? Maybe. Are sellers deceiving themselves? discount rental car in los angeles Many are – I've seen lots of properties at quite fantastical try-on prices that haven't shifted. discount rental car in los angeles Perhaps this "boom" consists of a thin market with few "comparables" where prices appear to be rising but the number of transactions discount rental car in los angeles is tiny.
But I was intrigued discount rental car in los angeles by a comment from one agent who said she was finding parents in London were selling out to (largely) foreign buyers prepared to pay £1m-£2m for their homes. They were downsizing and passing on £250,000-£500,000 to their children in their 20s and 30s to buy flats in the sorts of areas I was looking in. It is about the only explanation (apart discount rental car in los angeles from City bonuses) that may account for London's continuing ability to defy falling prices elsewhere.
According to Halifax, house prices discount rental car in los angeles in the capital rose by 2.6% in the last quarter of 2011 when every other region in the UK (except discount rental car in los angeles the south-east) saw a fall. My guess is that disconnect will become even bigger when we see the figures for the first quarter of 2012.
None of this would matter much if it was just about my own fruitless property search. But yet another sustained lurch upwards in prices and rents – which tend to rise in London first, then radiate out later – will take frustration and anger from the excluded discount rental car in los angeles to new heights. Young adults and families are furious that the property market has turned discount rental car in los angeles into a stitch-up between well-off baby boomers and buy-to-let landlords. And the bad news is that it seems it's just getting worse.