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

Is any of it open plan? Do you have a separate living room?

New builds depreciate in value over the first few years by 10-20%, due to losing the ‘new build premium’. They will regain this over time and appreciate in the long term, but since you’re only 7 years in, I would expect it to be closer to what you paid.

I don’t think it’s true that houses in general have depreciated since 2022 – we bought in 2022 for £795k and sold in 2025 for £885k. But that’s a period property that will always appreciate.

I suspect you’re facing new build premium lost + buying at peak + current terrible economy.

I hope you get an offer soon. There will be someone that wants your lovely home. You jus have to wait for them.

Because its not a first time buy and its an uncertain and expensive time to move up the ladder.

The war is impacting mortgage prices, cost of living is expensive, costs of actually moving are high and that'd before you get to the glut of ex-rentals coming to market as a result of Renters Reform.

In addition, if I was looking to spend that much, I'd be looking for a rural property with more space rather than a new build (not a slur, I love a new build and I'm sure it's priced well for the area, but my point is that my property search changes at those figures)

Broadly agree, but also thanks to the birth bust families with the youngest children may not need to worry as much about catchments. And of course, there are fewer of them than there used to be. Over a 15% drop in births between 2012 and 2024.

It sounds like it is with a load of other houses, so with near neighbours and no privacy but without the benefits of a town or countryside and a bit soulless. I occasionally drive through an area like this and wonder what it would be like to wfh home in one of these. There is nothing of interest around the houses. There is no town, no shops, no nature, no public transport.

Is it near a busy road? Is it a long way from a station or a good town?

Are you on three floors? 1700sq feet is a good size but not enormous. Perhaps two sets of stairs take up a lot of room plus the bathrooms and the house doesn't feel big inside?

Unfortunately you can't do anything about this.

If you did put a link you are opening up the house to a huge potential audience. Just saying.

In that case I would hold fire if you can.

There is probably nothing wrong with your house.
I think the estate agents have given you unrealistic expectations of how much to expect. This is happening a lot. You managed to nearly sell in 2022 at market peak. It's clearly not worth that now that the market has fallen. The Iran war has caused a big rise in interest rates and is speeding us into an even worse recession than we were in line for anyway.
How desperate are you to move? How much of a positive thing would it be for sure family? If you are really keen to move, perhaps wait for another 2-4 weeks and then consider a further reduction if no offers. The positive thing is that the larger/more expensive house that you want is also likely to have dropped and probably by more.

@Housesellinghelp You need to name change and put the link up on a new separate thread. Then you will get specific advice.

A cleaner?

So you're getting your house viewed by strangers anyway, why not post the link?

Its not your house, its the market. There are always people asking this on MN and Reddit recently - I find it very surprising that a lot of people don't seem to know that the property market is completely dead at the moment.

Especially if you’ve got messy teens….

Would you be able to say, broadly, what area you are in?

I agree with this, it's too many.

Definitely the current economic crisis. I live in a very sort after village which is popular with London commuters. Very little over £400-£500k is selling. We have some lovely new(ish) builds which have been sitting for sale for quite some time now.

Most of the men in DH family are builders and they are all saying work is starting to dry up, it’s not looking good out there.

Fingers crossed you will sell soon, good luck.

What has your estate agent said?
Without pictures/ a link it is tricky but in general terms

• house prices are very high but stagnant

I would just wait a couple of years then OP

On your answers, you appear to have a massive enormous house, tons of parking, neutral decor, outside bathrooms,landscaped garden with real grass, great catchment area for schools, no other new builds to compete with.

So you cant do anything other than keep reducing the price which you now say will affect your onward purchase

So you cant move.

Agree it’s a difficult market op.

We would have been a potential buyer for you last year. We have 3 bed and were considering upsizing to a 4 bed.

What put us off were the prices just to upsize to 1 bedroom. The house prices for 4 beds around us (south west) last year were £625k-£700k. Now, they have all gone down in price and you are looking at £600k or less with a lot of these 4 bed houses. Economy is really impacting things.

Petrol is going up by the day. I wouldn’t be looking to buy a propert right now with this uncertainty.

Totally agree with PPs that 4 bathrooms aren’t needed and not a good use of space and not worth the money.

In the end instead of upsizing house, we had a garden office installed. Much cheaper.

We also wouldn’t look at newbuilds tbh. They have a reputation as not being built to a high standard in comparison to slightly older houses.

This. We’ve just bought and the flat we bought was 4 years old and in pristine condition. An absolute steal that should have been in a bidding war given it’s location. Was sold for 12% less that purchased for - great for us but the seller made a six figure loss.

You are selling at the bottom of the market (which means the 5 bed property you also want to buy will also be lower priced) BUT there will be much fewer people looking and much fewer larger/more expensive properties coming to market.

The economy is tanking, most people’s jobs are insecure, threats of property taxes are stalling the sale of properties at the top of the chain from where the money usually trickles down the chain. Appreciate you want to sell and upsize but it is a really bad time to be selling, which is why we haven’t actually put our main/family home on the market yet and are planning to wait at least 2 years.

It’s not your property. It’s the market. I’d bide your time.

It’s probably as simple as not having found the right person. Families with younger children for whom the catchment is desirable, may be struggling with affordability due to increased mortgage rates (and expensive childcare). Older downsizers don’t have to consider school catchment so might be able to get more for less elsewhere. As you said, people are looking for lots of bedroom space now for office space/guests/step children. The fact the garage is separate might work against you: virtually all the 5 beds round here with integrated double garages have converted them into additional living space.

Housing in the uk has been too expensive relative to wages for a long time. Demand has crashed, especially in "naice" i.e. expensive areas.

From about 2000 - 2020 the market for property in London, flats especially, was inflated by a) cheap money b) foreign investors c) demand for buy to let d) a tax & migration system that allowed people to make a lot of money fast doing up properties.

As a result you had a constant swarm of people making quick gains and this (coupled again with the cheap money) flowed through to high housing values in the south east.

Then came the issues with flats (cladding, escalating lease and service fees, massive drop off in foreign investment, reduction in tax benefits for buy to let landlords) and the current generation of younger workers are stuck.

They've lost money on flats or can't shift them at all. Interest rates are higher so they can't upsize. Rents are so high they can't save. If no one can afford to buy your house, it won't be worth what you think.

It took me a year to sell mine and to do so I had to drop it to what a neighbours v similar (slightly smaller) house sold for pre covid.

I think this is a valid point. Mostly from the cleaning point of view. Who wants to have to clean four bathrooms?

Regardless of how naice the area is
mortgage rates are high and so is col, this is making the market very slow as it’s only people that have to move who are moving

you need to consider who ever buys your house, needs to sell theirs

but as per pp it will sell at the right price, doesn’t mean it’ll be a price you like or reflect the actual worth of the property

That's true. It must pre date that.