To ask why the housing market is so slow?

[SafelySoftly]

Trying for several months to buy in London. Market is absolutely dead and I’m hearing of similar tales across the country. Anyone else finding it and why? Just general sluggishness/cost/Ukraine fears? Why isn’t it getting more press coverage (appreciate there is more important stuff but we love a bit of house price news)?

Yes hardly anything on the market. I think buyers are securing properties before marketing is needed.

In the south east here and its the same. The estate agents tell me potential sellers won't list as they can't see anything they would want to buy so thus it's a circular issue of not enough properties for sale. Apparently there are twice as many buyers as houses available. Houses I have been bidding on have had 5-10 offers.

Three of my friends have taken their houses off the market recently.

The rising of NI and pension contributions, plus the rising cost of petrol, electricity, heating and food, has put them off upsizing for now.

They are staying put to reassess.

Its super fast here tbh - it looks like there is nothing on the market, but literally houses aren't making it onto Rightmove, or are SSTC within a few days.

Its definitely uncertainty. Nobody knows what is going to happen to house prices so thry are sitting tight. Nobody wants to make a mistake.

Where we are a lot of the higher end houses are being snapped up by Cantonese (cash) buyers.
The lower end goes to buy to let buyers who are also cash puchasers.
Cash purchasers are always going to be preferable to someone stuck in a chain or awaiting a mortgage.
The estate agents aren't even needing to advertise lots of properties here anymore as they sell do quickly.
Have you tried approaching estate agents directly, telling them your budget and what you're looking for and asking them to alert you when something comes up.

Our London flat has been for sale for 9 months, probably going to reduce the price next week if you're interested!!!!

We've got baby number 2 on the way now, so although it's clearly not the time to sell, we do really need to move 😒

We are looking to move to the home counties and think we will need to rent first as there are ever only about 3 unsuitable houses for sale in our search area.

Economic uncertainty. People are reluctant to enter into big financial commitments when inflation is on the rise.

People aren't going to move to somewhere bigger and more expensive when they think there's a chance that they won't be able to afford the mortgage because of rising prices and, possibly, interest rates, when fixed rate terms come to an end.

I think we're heading for a spell of stagflation. Slow growth, because people aren't spending, possibly rising unemployment, and rising prices, all at the same time.

@SaggyBlinders

Three of my friends have taken their houses off the market recently.

The rising of NI and pension contributions, plus the rising cost of petrol, electricity, heating and food, has put them off upsizing for now.

They are staying put to reassess.

This. It's what we are doing.

Because of sellers with unrealistic asking prices?

Because people are cash poor, they either can't get on the ladder or can't move up it.

Can't say it's like that in Edinburgh, most places are gone in a week round me.

Combination of less properties available (people worried about rising bills will stay put) and very high prices: a very similar house to mine just went for £150k more than I paid for mine 5 years ago. These are just average houses so I suspect the higher £££ may be putting people off moving also, because they have to buy somewhere else at an even higher (often) price.

@SaggyBlinders

Three of my friends have taken their houses off the market recently.

The rising of NI and pension contributions, plus the rising cost of petrol, electricity, heating and food, has put them off upsizing for now.

They are staying put to reassess.

This is us currently too.

We will wait to see how everything goes over the next year or so before looking again.

Houses are going super fast and yes absolutely registered with everyone so don’t think we are missing out. But there simply isn’t the supply. We are very fortunate to be upsizing, just seems like people aren’t sufficiently financially hard hit at the moment to need to sell up. There is no the usual Spring bounce going on.

We put a property on last week and it’s already under offer. All cash too. Super fast in my (tiny) experience.

It's the opposite here, no one can get a look in as they're gone within a day or two.

Our house was on the market recently and had 18 offers, all but one were well above asking price. We took it off as even with the increased budget, we wouldn't have been able to find anything better having been outbid on multiple other properties.

Everyone saying it's the opposite here, places are selling quickly: OP is trying to buy a house, not sell one. It is a sellers market atm as there are fewer properties available to buy. What is available is selling quickly and for more money.

There's little on the market and what there is goes very fast.

I made appointments to see 3 newly listed bungalows a few weeks ago. That was on the Friday. All 3 were booked for the following Tuesday which was the first date available.

Within hours I had a message from the estate agent saying one had gone under offer. The next day the other agent said the property had been withdrawn from the market as a family member was buying it.

I put in an offer on the third bungalow on the Tuesday afternoon. Had to offer full asking price too to get it.

Just crazy.

@LondonQueen

It's the opposite here, no one can get a look in as they're gone within a day or two.

Same here. Houses are selling very quickly but sales are falling through as sellers can’t find anywhere to move to. Total lack of supply

People aren't putting their houses for sale as there's not much on the market

Can you spot the obvious problem?

Very quick here! SW

London hasn't performed a well as other places as it. I read more FTBs left London to buy last yr which will have an impact. My area has stagnated since Brexit, the SD cut helped people move up the ladder.

We are very fortunate to be upsizing, just seems like people aren’t sufficiently financially hard hit at the moment to need to sell up.

I'm not sure financial hardship is a main driver of house selling. I think people need to feel well-off/comfortable for this to result in a bouyant house market.

Yes I sold my house in 2 days with 5 sealed bids £20k over asking… it’s the fact there’s nowhere to buy. So it’s red hot but zero supply for larger houses.