AIBU to wonder why our fairly priced new-build house is not selling?

There could be a few factors.

Firstly at 5 years old your new build isn't very old for you to be thinking about moving on. This may make potential buyers wary of bad neighbors or issues with the development.

Is there still building happening on or close to your estate? If so, if your area is like mine, those new build housing developer are offering allsorts of incentives to buy new (low interest mortgage, free appliances, high spec fittings for free, free shed bases/ garden taps ect).

Then there is the big one, The War and incoming recession. Getting a mortgage at the moment is incredibly difficult. Mortgage rates are going to go up. Add in COL and stricter lending and you suddenly have people who cannot afford the mortgage they thought they could. I also know a few friends who despite having supposedly "secure" jobs are at risk of redundancy or reduced hours. This is on top of already reduced hours.

My friend put an offer in on a property in beginning of March, offer accepted, everything processing. She got a call last week saying that despite having a mortgage in principle she now needed an extra £5k deposit in order to get her mortgage. Luckily her elderly nana and her mum and dad came to the rescue but finding £5k when every penny of savings and already borrowed some amounts from family is incredibly hard.

Not in the UK but I’d say it’s the state of uncertainty in the world.
I sold my house last week and haven’t found anywhere to buy, so I’m fortunate that I can move back with my parents until I find somewhere.
I’ve been looking, but the market is low in supply and there’s literally nothing that interests me. I’m also a little hesitant with committing to purchasing at present as the interest rates are rising and there’s just so much uncertainty - I’d rather just put the house money in a high interest savings account and wait till things settle.

Border with what?

We've done the same. Your market is mostly families in long chains, it is not worth the stress right now with young children and the cost of everything else rising. I've known two families try to move in the last year, one took a year after the chain collapsed multiple times and the other decided to stay put after their mortgage offer expired.

It doesn’t matter to any prospective buyer what price you need in order to fund your onward purchase. What matters to a buyer is getting as much of their wish list as possible at a price they can afford.

You have to decide whether you lower the price to sell and can’t then afford what you want, keep the price as it is and don’t attract potential buyers, or wait it out.

I’ve heard recently of two state primaries, both in ‘nice’, fairly affluent areas of Greater London and Oxfordshire, where it’s considerably easier to get a place than it was a few years ago.

Look at what has sold and for what within a half a mile of where you live.

Not much moving in the market currently OP.
We live in a hugely sought after area in our town, on the edge of the countryside, countryside views but you can easily bus or walk in to the town. Amazing schools. Our area is particularly popular with people who have lived in the town for years. Both ours and our 2 neighbours, all with slightly different size and style of houses haven’t had much interest.

Yes this is a v important point. We’re in catchment for a highly sought after secondary where usually only those who lived extremely close to the school would get in, but that area has been widening in the last couple of years due to declining birth rates.

It's always the price.

The question about have a downstairs loo or open plan or garden size or an en suite are irrelevant - the house is what it is and you should be suddenly trying to fit in an extra loo in the hope of getting your asking price.

If doesn't matter what a house sold for in December. It doesn't matter that the area you want to buy in is not getting cheaper (although I would guess that prices are stagnating in the last six weeks everywhere, thanks Donald). It is just the price now for the buyers are available and willing to buy now that matters.

If you are getting no offers at or around your asking price, your asking price is too high

That's it.

You need to recalibrate your expectations and onward move (although again you might find that prices are recalibrating above as well so the 5 bed you want to buy is not worth what it was last year)

Is it the size of the garden? I’ve been looking at new builds a similar sounding size to yours and I’ve been constantly disappointed by the corresponding garden size. They’re always far too small for the size of the house. With two small children I want a decent garden.

Yes, that's a good point.

Yeah, I thought this. A lot of new builds are tall and thin on small plot. Lots of bedrooms with tiny en suites but not enough living space for that number of occupants.

We tried to sell a large 2 bedroom flat (£300k) in a desirable area in the south east in September last year. Nobody even looked at for three months. We then decided to put it up for rent with a letting agent at the market rate as we needed to move. We had 4 viewers the next day and one of them secured it the day after. In our case it wasn’t that the flat wasn’t attractive enough, or that the price was unfair, it was just that there is very little demand at the moment. Similar flats at the same price point are still on the market 6 months later and many of them have been reduced but still aren’t shifting.

But the name housesellinghelp was probably one made up for this thread so doesn’t link to any other thread anyway.

Post the link, respectfully. You can't ask why your house isn't selling and then give no one an opportunity to tell you.

There might genuinely be things on the listing that you're blind to.

It's always the price and the market.

Your house might be priced about right, but if potentially buyers can't sell their house for the right price, or get a mortgage for the right rate, your pool of buyers reduces.

Prices are stagnanting at the top end, so downsizers may be waiting it out, so that market is reduced.

My sister is looking at new builds and there are offering good deals which reflects the market as a whole. Also, people may be willing to travel further for a good deal on a new build than pay more in their desired area.

“…….a house slightly bigger than ours sold for £750k a year ago…….” You post @Housesellinghelp
That was then. This is now.
We are living through uncertain times and the energy crisis caused by the US attacks on Iran is impacting. The cost of everything has gone up and will continue to rise.
People are hunkering down I would say. Probably only buying if absolutely necessary. Yours is not a standard first time buyers style house.

Are there lots of new "new" builds around? I think pay a premium for a new build to get it tailored to what they want. A second hand "new" build isn't really the same.

Yes. In all honesty, it sounds like a lovely home, so many positives. However, she's moving for a reason, which she may or may not share with us.
I suspect a variety of reasons, but unless we see the house and understand the location, it's a bit tricky to give advice.

And not aimed at you OP but this is the reality of "making houses more affordable". In the current climate, it means people won't sell at the price rhey expected and will.yherefore be stuck where they are. Unless its too expensive because someone has lost their job and they need a rapid sale.

House builders are facing rising costs so "more affordable housing" simply means existing owners pricing lower because they desperately need to sell.

Completely agree with the other comments. We were considering moving and looked at a few houses, but with the current uncertainty and not knowing how high mortgage rates are going to go, we’ve shelved the idea completely for now

Exactly. And houses that sold in December or January did so in a different world. But that's also going to be true of the sort of property OP wants to buy.