In our family we are selling 3 houses.
Cheap bungalow in Eastbourne , 2 viewings in a month.
Detached house in Surrey for £750k lots of viewings no takers.
Detached house in Surrey £950k a couple of viewings and an offer of £750k.
It just seems dead darn sarf. How is it elsewhere?
My niece is selling in Exmouth.
Her boyfriend is selling in Belper.
My daughters boyfriend is selling in Doncaster.
All very slow. The only one with real interest is the cheap one in Doncaster which is just waiting for a survey to be done.
Looking to downsize and test the water with ours in a month or two. Large cottage and outbuildings with garden and a 1 acre paddock in very rural south Shropshire. We are not optimistic, similar properties locally have struggled to sell. The market around here is very subdued.
Things seem slower here. Only keeping a weather eye on the market as parents are still in their house but may need to sell it.
Always a bit hit and miss but I guess mortgage fluctuations aren't helping.
We've had one on since September. 1st sale, chain fell through. Second is hpefully to complete in next month or so. I reckon if they hadn't had a confirmed mortgage offer before World Bigly Moron Day, this one would've collapsed too
I moved last year, sale was an absolute doddle
Next door went on the market for about 20% more than I expected, I thought "if mine is the same that opens up some possibilities for me"
They had a few viewings, I spotted one of them in the village later that afternoon and got chatting.
"What do you think of it?"
"It's very nice, but no central heating is putting me off"
"Mine has central heating and I'm thinking of selling, would you like to come and have a look?"
A little while later a friend of friend came to have a look too, I managed to start my own bidding war without ever involving an estate agent 🤣Sold for £5.5k over the home report value, around £4k less than next door went for, but my colleague who moved shortly afterwards spent £4k on an estate agent so I'm probably in the same position i would have been with a lot less faff.
Buying was a pain, luckily it was from a friend with no chain, no agent again, but my solicitor was a right nuisance and dragged it out far longer than necessary.
From about ten miles from the Tweed Valley into the Tweed Valley itself.
Buying has been an absolute nightmare, first house 9 months in and the owner is halfway through the conveyancing on the 4th purchase, hopefully she doesn't pull out of this one. I'm trying to buy an alternative at the same time, but that's blocked by a covenant that can't be resolved until next door is registered with the Land registry. Everything in the process is crap, can't talk directly to anyone, Chinese whispers between agents, solicitors and vendors.
Selling wise, pretty easy. First buyer withdrew after 6 months of waiting for my onward but was highest bidder of 3, £25k over asking. Second time round only 1 bidder, and less viewings (January) but cash buyer came in decisively £10k over asking.
Price it right and it'll sell. Otherwise it'll sit and sit. Got my second purchase agreed at 60k under asking as it had 1 viewing in 3 months.
My wife is selling a flat on behalf of her mother.
Bogged down in the legals aspects of it having accepted an asking price offer. The solicitor is using some sort of ID verification app which can't get its head around the fact that my mother in law doesn't have a phone, a passport or a driving licence.
Also the management company that looks after the flat are next to useless, and I suspect that the person we are dealing with couldn't find her asshole with both hands.
Next door neighbour just put his house on the market (East Sussex, 5 bed) - sold in a day. Hopeful it might be a family moving in as its a family house but hey ho, its a couple of recently retired boomers 'downsizing' ..........to a 5 bed house with a massive garden.
We've had our house on the market since February. Very few viewings, not a lot of interest. One silly offer, £80K under our asking price. We're wondering whether the estate agent's not doing a great job, or the market's just very slow at the moment. :/
The house next door Sold STC within a couple of weeks.
4-bed detached in a nice-enough village on the outskirts or Reading, needs cosmetic work as it was owned by an old couple and then tenanted for ~5 years so. I think they've just got to go through probate now as the buyers aren't in much of a chain, just some first time buyers below them.
Gran's McArthy and Stone flat has been listed for £100k less than she paid for it for over a year now.
Other Gran's cottage +1.4 acres just outside Kirkby Lonsdale has just gone on the market if anyone want's an awesome garden, a short hop from spectacular riding, and with room for a pump track!
I believe that parts of the country are having a "quiet crash", which is probably the least painful way to get out of the predicament that we are in.
Selling my MiL's house in North Wales, near Llangollen. Only 1 viewing in 3 weeks. The market seems very slow at the moment.
My mother's house, two bedroom cottage, good condition in a little village just outside Kendal, has been on the market for nearly two years. Ideal for downsizing or first time buyers. A few viewings but no offers. Two years ago went on the market at £260000 now £215000 and still nothing. Very little in that price range seems to be selling around Kendal.
We've had our house on the market since February. Very few viewings, not a lot of interest. One silly offer, £80K under our asking price. We're wondering whether the estate agent's not doing a great job, or the market's just very slow at the moment. :/
It's the agent not doing their job, they've overvalued it by £80k...
Anything will sell f the price is right
We've had our house on the market since February. Very few viewings, not a lot of interest. One silly offer, £80K under our asking price. We're wondering whether the estate agent's not doing a great job, or the market's just very slow at the moment. :/
Sorry to say but if it's not selling and you've only had 1 offer under 80k that the agent couldn't bring up then it's overpriced. It's only worth what someone will pay. That said, there's an art to selling. Kerb appeal, everything leading up to the front door neat and tidy, zero clutter anywhere, spotless, smelling fresh etc.
Cheap 2 bed flat in a friends stair sold in a week for £5000 over . Edinburgh
This is Zoopla's view of my house's valuation over the past 2 years. My daughter is selling her house in Bristol, where she's been for 4 years or so, and after 3 weeks has had 10 or so viewings and 3 offers, one of which she has accepted at £5k below asking. Despite making significant improvements to the place, the increase she's seen has been well below inflation. My conclusion is that house prices have been falling in real terms for a couple of years at least.
Thanks @andrewh and @scruffythefirst - not what I _wanted_ to hear, but probably what I _needed_ to hear. We're going to do some work to smarten it up a bit (clear up the front garden, get rid of some house clutter, etc) and see if that makes a difference.
That said, it seems to be priced around the same as other very similar houses on the same street that have sold in the last year - with other estate agents.
Sold ours at asking in Jan. We had three offers after a few weeks on the market. One well under, one well over but not able to proceed. One at asking able and willing to proceed quickly.
Took that as we had already offered elsewhere and we're looking at bridging loans to cover owning two properties.
Still slower than we thought. Selling something desirable, 4 bed victorian townhouse commutable to Newcastle centre, hospitals and just about anywhere in the city. Suburb just rated as one of nicest places to live.
Im surrey (just outside surrey hills) and had been looking to sell last year, we had an offer at asking, but it fell through - they were 1 of only 3 people intersted. All we've heard around here is that upto ~£800K stuff is moving - just about, but anything then under £1.5-£2m is stagnant. Although not actively selling now, we did say to the agent if someone was looking we might move, and we then had 1 family look 3 times, they eventually chose another property on location. So im not sure round here it;s that houses are valued less, it;s more that people are simply saying -i know the value of my house and im not budging whilst trumpton keeps screwing up the markets!
does mean , im now going ot tidy the garage and put some cupboards and stuff in -might add Aircon to house as well due to the stoopid massive bi-folds.
Thanks@andrewhand@scruffythefirst- not what I _wanted_ to hear, but probably what I _needed_ to hear. We're going to do some work to smarten it up a bit (clear up the front garden, get rid of some house clutter, etc) and see if that makes a difference.
I would take the advert down, scrub it from Rightmove etc. A fresh listing, fresh pictures etc priced competitively will generate more interest than something that hasn't sold in months and is now showing as reduced.
We sold in November, central Scotland. 9 viewings in 7 days, offer from 2 of them, accepted one asap as they were both first time buyers. Old house on zoopla (not that I believe it too much, but house prices still rise there) was up 5% in last 2 years.
@Suo, scruffy has good advice, a new listing always looks better. New pictures too. How similar is yours to the nearby ones which have sold? Identical estate type ones probably a better comparison than something about the same size at the other end of the village. Also, did they actually sell for asking, or did they take the lower offer you turned down?
Maybe a new agent will make a difference, my old neighbours was on the market for ages, they ended up renting it out for a couple of years as it wouldn't sell. New people had it for about four years then it sold in about two months when they sold. Yes, the market will have changed in that time but the first agents were rubbish (for instance we did some viewings as people had showed up, but not the agent, and we had a key and wanted to be nice to our absent neighbours)
I believe that parts of the country are having a "quiet crash", which is probably the least painful way to get out of the predicament that we are in.
That's been my view.
The problem is wages haven't risen with inflation either so it's just everything else has got more expensive rather than houses more affordable.
I'd hope that price stagnation will carry on for another 5-10 years until prices look a bit more affordable.
The changes to inheritance tax on "farms" should mean the value of land falls back to historical levels as well which should stimulate building.
There's probably a large element who purchased during the highs of covid who have no choice but to try and stick out for a better price or else fall into negative equity or not release enough equity to cover legal fees.
what with each 'generation' coming up getting poorer, eventually its got to gum up right? The nice teacher and accountant who are 28 atm wont be buying that nice house that the 60 y/o teacher and accountant will want to sell?
My old house went up in value over 50% in the ten years I had it.
But so did the one I bought when I moved.
Rising house prices don't make you any better off if you own a house🤷
The exception being if you downsize or inherit one, but for most people most of the time any money you make selling is taken up by the one you buy being more expensive. But politicians seem to like rising house values and so here we are
I would like to also offer that the huge increase in cost for tradespeople is catching folk out round by us. People assuming a new roof is £10k because the neighbour had it done for £7k 5 years ago get a quote for £20k. Bathroom was fitted down the road in 2020 for £6k is now £11k. Last kitchen I fitted in 2007 cost £1500 for units and worktop - priced up almost the same last year and it was £8k! I think people are still renovating away and the payback is just not there anymore.
When we moved in November another neighbour sold in December. We have new build all done up and guaranteed for £390k. They have 'doer upper' and found that the budget is 2.5 times what they estimated...but now they are £300k into a wreck of a smaller house with an estimate of over £200k to get it updated and extended to make it same size as ours.....
We have a very tidy 3 bed semi in a nice part of Eccleshall, a "sought after" town in Staffordshire. It was rented out until earlier this year and when the tenants left we put it up for sale. The first agent got us 2 viewings, no offer. We switched agent to the dominant one in the town. New photos, one viewing. Dropped the price, one viewing. So 12 weeks, 3 viewings.
Today we put it back on for rental, through an agent. More photos, a rent uplift on the last tenant and the listing went live this lunchtime. Already 3 enquiries and a viewing booked for tomorrow.
I don't think it's a reliable statistical sample but it says something to me. A scary thing to me is that the market rent is 60% up on what it was 9 years ago when we first let it out.
Rising house prices don't make you any better off if you own a house
Plenty of truth in that. But rising house prices do make people who don’t own a house poorer, as they can’t buy and rents rise.
I'm not really in the market but there's one area I keep an eye on. It's just the same houses going round and round, month after month.
When something disappears and you think it's sold it comes back 6 weeks later.
Asking prices are still sky high of course.
I don't think it's a reliable statistical sample but it says something to me. A scary thing to me is that the market rent is 60% up on what it was 9 years ago when we first let it out.
Look at that annually though and it's only 5.3%
My old house went up in value over 50% in the ten years I had it.
And this is only 4.1%
I think the mental days of double digit annual rises are over for the foreseeable. It still probably pays to buy rather than rent because you're getting that 4-5% inflation on the full price, but with interest rates also at 4-5% even that is massively eroded.
It's forced sales that cause prices to crash. Fortunately I believe that they're not currently happening to a great extent.
Unfortunately the choice is between a significant period of stagnation with it's knock on economic effects (people not being able to move), or a shorter and much more painful period. I'm afraid that there are a lot of people out there who, whatever happens, are going to realise that they're not as well off as they thought they were.
Trying to sell our house in Hove... Had a few viewings...no offers.
It's a bit frustrating, and estate agents are massively useless!
DrP
Sold our flat 2 years ago, few months from start to finish in Croydon. Mate inherited a house in West Sussex three years ago - still not sold. Neighbour here in Surrey, been on the market for over 2 years. Problem with this one being it is deteriorating around him, and he doesn't want to spend money on it. Doom loop that one. Suspect prices here in Surrey are going down.
It's forced sales that cause prices to crash. Fortunately I believe that they're not currently happening to a great extent.
Too true, unless people absolutely have to sell, they generally hold out for what they think it's worth rather than stomach a big drop in price.
Estate agents told us that lack of first time buyers means that the pipeline becomes stagnant.
Estate agents told us that lack of first time buyers means that the pipeline becomes stagnant.
There's that, and then there are loads of people stuck in flats that they can't sell, especially in London and the south. There's a *huge* glut of flats in London that aren't selling, but developers don't want to write down the value, because if they do so they're likely to go bankrupt.
Sold a house last year, it was a doddle. Actually that's a bit misleading, the offer and acceptance was 2024, but the owner (FiL) dying and probate delays meant it took best part of a year to complete, well into 2025.
Got about half a dozen offers closing-date style, any of the top three would have been fine.
Unfortunately the choice is between a significant period of stagnation with it's knock on economic effects (people not being able to move), or a shorter and much more painful period. I'm afraid that there are a lot of people out there who, whatever happens, are going to realise that they're not as well off as they thought they were.
I know it's been said that house price inflation drives growth, but I've never been convinced.
Firstly, the more money your house costs, the less you have to spend on anything else that is actually produced by people adding value and earning a wage rather than it just appearing out of thin air. The only people earning money were those cashing out an inheritance.
There was a correlation though, but that's because both growth and house price inflation were driven by low interest rates.
And the 'not able to move' isn't generally going to be true either. Some inflation make make it seem like all the fees and taxes* get eroded, and to an extend that's true, if you don't pay them up front then you're in negative equity on day 1. But there isn't any reasonable logic or morality as to why people shouldn't have to actually pay those costs at some point. Otherwise it's always the next round of first time buyers effectively paying everyone in the chain's costs each time and being assured that prices will go up to cover it when they sell to the next one, which is just a classic description of a Ponzi scheme.
Your home should be something that costs you money. It should cost you money to finance it, to complete transactions* on it, to maintain it, to upgrade it. That's just sensible economics surely?
*as a caveat to that, SDLT should be scrapped entirely and council tax increased proportionally. The tax should be a tax on your assets, not on how often you buy and sell them. Everyone benefits from people moving, they take better jobs, they generate work for agents, solicitors and trades, they commute less causing less traffic and pollution, and all the knock on effects of that.
Doesn't seem like the markets picked up much since we bought last September.
House was up for 215 initially in a normally strong deeside village.
Was reduced to 195 then 185 over a year vacant sale ex probate - probate complete and we offered 170. Accepted immediately no counter.
Needed a rewire and a new boiler + gutting of old person decor from 1990s.
It was a 2 bed detached retirement bungalow with a drive and garage in a quiet retirement part of the village I suspect the comments above about the cost of work needing done put folk off - especially your typical downsizer. We just cost it into the offer.
Rewires done , boilers done , I replaced all the rads , trvs , had the flooring done. All walls stripped and plastered and painted and we have had the garden done. Probably into it for about exactly what we budget and the house looks a different house. Think it would sell much quicker now but probably not for much more.
So are your houses ready to go or are you needing handy people - is it priced appropriate. It seems the days of the house selling for it's square footage and location with the condition not counting for much are over in most areas with people buying smarter.
Allowing for inflation underlying house prices are around the same as they were in 2008.
There are some regional differences, but its been fairly static since the last financial crash.
Now that interest rates have gone back to "normal" levels, the ability to borrow is constricted, so i'd expect prices to soften.
Gone are the days when people had access to cheap credit, so could go crazy and outbid each other.
Mate built a very nice house on land easily commutable to Edinburgh, and the tweed valley, took 2 years to get built and another to sell. He had to do all sorts of financial shenanigans to keep the money flowing. Looks like he might come out of it with a £7k profit. Not sure his ex-to be wife will leave him with much of that.
I know it's been said that house price inflation drives growth, but I've never been convinced.
Its the opposite, as its removing money out of the economy which could be spend on goods/services, which then create further jobs via the multiplier effect.
Its a tactic used by Government on all sides to provide the illusion that you're getting richer, by asset prices increasing.
If all houses go up by 10%, its a zero sum game. If you want to move the house you're selling is worth more, but the house you're buying has increased too.
Its been used to cover over the fact that wages have been stagnate over that period, but its ok because this asset you own is worth 10% more on paper.
But unless you're in the position to downsize, its not really a gain you can realise.
