What would you do in this situation?

[Frogmarching]

Need a bit of impartial advice/other opinions as DP and I are just going round in circles about this.

We bought our London flat in 2016, in Spring, just before our DS was born. It's technically a 2 bedroom but the second bedroom is an odd shape and it wouldn't really work as an adult or teenager's bedroom - it's been fine for DS because he was in a cot and then a toddler bed, and it would be fine for a study (it's actually not a bad size, it isnt' "box room" sized), but if you wanted a second double bedroom or a room for an older child or teenager it just wouldn't be for you. It also has no garden.

We bought it for 345k which at the time given the area was booming was a pretty reasonable price. Then Brexit happened. Then the pandemic happened. We are desparate to move somewhere bigger but as it is no one wants to buy it - flats without gardens in London are badly struggling at the moment. It's on the market for 325k and I'm starting to accept that we are going to have to drop it even further. I never wanted to make money off it, but as it is it's looking like we're going to be financially no better off and potentially worse off than if we'd just rented for the past 4 years. We've 260 left on the mortgage - not enough equity to rent it out (I've explored this option).

So essentially we either sell at a massive loss or we wait it out and hope the market picks up a bit. My immediate fear is that the market will crash completely and we'll be in negative equity.

WWYD in this situation? I'm driving myself crackers thinking about it. Comparable flats in the area are selling once they drop to about 315k (on rightmove - how much they're actually selling for I don't know). The market is very sluggish in general for flats but some stuff is selling.

Just to be clear I'm really not wanting advice on how to sell it, I just wanted to talk about the situation.

I meant from the opposite wall to the bay, not sure if that was clear

Oh sorry! No again unfortunately not, it would stick out in front of the door.

Lol no I mean towards the bay from the opposite wall

Oh yes, we did that originally but it just made the room feel tiny as there was no floorspace.

I would drop the price, things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better

Eesh, this is what I mean

No one knows, least of all me.

But he won’t need floor space when he’s older. You could still do it as a futon if you wanted.

Other option... hammock on the ceiling 😂

I LOVE the idea of a hammock

I'm still hoping we'll have moved by the time he's old enough to require a full sized single tbh - he's really, really teeny for his age.

Drop the price, sell it, buy a house neqr your family in Cirencester.

What's the best that can happen?

I dunno, what's the worst 🤣

I think that you want to move and feel like your life is 'on hold' if you stay in your flat waiting for the market to pick up.

If you can afford to take the hot financially and you are ready to start a new chapter in your family life adventure, just take a low offer and go for it!

Well we will keep it on the market regardless I think; no harm in that.

Sorry I have nothing useful to add but the prices of London properties never cease to amaze me 🤯.

I know, it's mad isnt it.

I think you need to regard for your DH your move wouldn’t just affect space but also it would impact on your lifestyle too.

Is it near your family or his? What are your social lives like Covid or not, in London?

His parents are both dead and his sister and her family live in Reading.

We are not particularly social in terms of friends (we do have them but they are dotted about in other places); I come from an enormous family and we socialise mostly with them (some are in London and some are south west).

@Frogmarching would you want a new build? If you would you may well be able to part exchange your current property with the developer. Worth investigating?
www.wainhomes.net/developments/Saxon+Meadows+-+South+Cerney/

That’s just one development I found with a quick google but it looks like there are quite a few near Cirencester...

I think you should have a glance at zoopla

I know the general area (enough to know I love ciren) but not the specific suburbs. With that said on zoopla there are perfectly nice places for around the 300 mark so if you like one of them and selling your flat allows you to afford it then gfi

I'd wait, prices will rally. Hardly any FTBs around at the moment.

It’s a pity you deleted your other thread as there was lots of constructive advice there.

I had to delete my thread as I had been identified IRL from it. It would be helpful if people thought about that before referring to it.

Definitely worth asking about consent to let, but do be prepared to remortgage to a btl remortgage after the year if they don't agree to extend it - this happened to us, despite having excellent tenants in, when we lived abroad. Was a pain in the backside but worked out ok.

We are in exactly the same position as you, so you have my sympathy! Our 2 bed, garden-less flat is just getting zero interest. Our toddler is 2.

We have decided to hang on, we're throwing all savings at the mortgage, in the hope that if we sell in 2 years we'll have enough equity that a dip in prices won't feel too painful. It's a shit situation, but we're trying to see this as a time to hunker down and maximise savings (which we couldn't do with a bigger mortgage). We're trying to see this as an investment in our future.