A Shropshire estate agent today claimed home-sellers can buck the credit crunch – as long as they are not too greedy about the asking price.

Nearly a quarter of county homes sold this year went for at or above the guide price, said Balfours Property Professionals.

And the company insisted Shropshire’s property market was still moving, despite all the doom and gloom.

Shropshire has for some time managed to escape the worst of the national economic slump, but it seems the credit crunch has started to bite in recent months.

Latest victims include Shropshire-based Barbers Estate Agents which has called in administrators and announced the closure of four offices with the loss of 60 jobs and Halifax is to close 53 of its estate agents around the country.

But Shrewsbury-based Balfours, which also has offices in Craven Arms, Much Wenlock and Oswestry, said it was not all bad news.

Stables

Tim Main, head of Balfours residential sales, said: “About 23 per cent of this year’s sales have been at or above the guide price, with some selling for as much as 25 per cent above guide.”

He said that while it could easily take six months rather than six weeks to sell, a number of properties had been snapped up within six and 10 weeks of going on the market.

One such property is the Old Farmhouse, at Norbury, near Newport.

The four-bedroom property, with stables and five acres of paddocks, was sold within eight weeks with a guide price of £650,000.

Other properties recently exchanged include: a town house in Kennedy Road, Kingsland, Shrewsbury, for £675,000; Woodside, a country cottage in Ford Heath, near Shrewsbury, for £350,000; a grade II-listed Georgian farmhouse in Kynaston, near Oswestry, for £595,000; and a three- bedroom farmhouse in Chirbury, for £475,000.

Mr Main said: “The most important factors are pitching the property at the right market, launching with a realistic price tag and ensuring presentation is appealing to the targeted buyer.”

By Peter Johnson