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)?

London hasn't performed a well as other places

I think this is also true - London property has probably suffered the most through loss of value (real or perceived) over the pandemic because people tended to be moving out of the city. On top of higher than national house price increases over the last 20 years, this has caused somewhat of a stagnation, I suspect.

This may well reverse in the future if people go back to offices, or a new generation believes they need to be in the city for career potential.

We're upsizing too. We've had to be really open-minded about how far we're willing to move to be honest.

The whole process is slow though. There are still massive backlogs from covid. Solicitors, mortgage companies and land registry are all taking their sweet time!

You said it OP, it’s a supply issue. There just aren’t enough houses to go around that people want to buy or fit their needs. So chains simply don’t form because people can find nowhere to move to. I suspect that it’s increasingly the case that viable chains have at least one party going into rented. Otherwise viable chains can’t be formed.

Its a roundabout dance at the moment. People put there house on the market get ridiculous above asking offers and then can't find anything to buy as everything is getting ridiculous above asking offers as there is so little around. The market is stalling for sales but not for prices.

I looked in the estate agents window yesterday and all bar 2 properties were marked as sold. This was about 48 properties.

Same here in the south east. The estate agent told me it’s due to so many unknowns with price increases and many people moved during the stamp duty holiday. He said that it was incredibly busy during that period.

There seems to be a real lack of new properties coming onto the market, which probably stops others wanting to sell (no where they want to move to). I think due to uncertainty with everything going on especially inflation and rising interest rates.

@CMOTDibbler

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.

Same here.

@CMOTDibbler

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.

There isn’t a lot on the market and what does come on is sold for top prices within days, around here. The local market has always been buoyant but not like this.

Our 4/5 bed detached house has been for sale in south Hertfordshire (Cheshunt) for 10 days and no offers. There are very little houses on the market, but we are stumped as to why we’ve not sold yet. We’re retired and are downsizing out of the area

@Chikasan

Our 4/5 bed detached house has been for sale in south Hertfordshire (Cheshunt) for 10 days and no offers. There are very little houses on the market, but we are stumped as to why we’ve not sold yet. We’re retired and are downsizing out of the area

Have you had viewings?

some people are probably in a rush as they want to buy before their offer runs out.

@Chikasan
If your house is not selling in current market, it’s overpriced. How many estate agents valued it and what was the range?

[quote SafelySoftly]@Chikasan
If your house is not selling in current market, it’s overpriced. How many estate agents valued it and what was the range?[/quote]
Not necessarily.

People looking for detached houses that size will be spending a lot of money and will be look for very specific things. It could be some tiny little things that make it 'not quite right'.

we were planning to buy this year (sold last yr) but in light of current events won't stretch ourselves at all & spending much less than planned so high LTV

@Chikasan

Our 4/5 bed detached house has been for sale in south Hertfordshire (Cheshunt) for 10 days and no offers. There are very little houses on the market, but we are stumped as to why we’ve not sold yet. We’re retired and are downsizing out of the area

This means the price is too high!

The market is odd. Right now, we could sell our SW 4 bed townhouse immediately but we'd be looking for a detached 4 bed. Which, now, would cost us £5k stamp duty, probably around £5k in estate agent and solicitor's fees, and another £150k on top of our existing mortgage. I'm just not paying that. Instead we have just fixed our mortgage for 10 years.

Yes, we’ve had viewings, all very positive, but they’ve not sold their houses yet either. We’ve found our place, no chain above us. Price is comparable to similar properties in the area

@Chikasan

Yes, we’ve had viewings, all very positive, but they’ve not sold their houses yet either. We’ve found our place, no chain above us. Price is comparable to similar properties in the area

Stop accepting viewings from people who aren't proceedable! They're wasting your time.

We have people, who have been wanting to buy our house for a year now. Not sure if they can afford the price hike though. Their parents were stumping up part of the proof of funds. After a week and nothing, we told them through the agent we needed the proof within 48 hours as we were putting in a sealed bid on a house we wanted. Their parents were on holiday and refused to oblige so we lost the house. We were the highest bidder by 54k (as confirmed by the sold price on Zoopla) but the vendors wouldn’t wait so we are in this position now because of them.

Theirs is an easy sale as it’s a basic semi worth circa 1/3 of our house and they are stc again as we are in very different markets. This is in a good-sized village and was literally the last house of this calibre to come up. Zero since then. Cannot find anywhere for us to move to. Our house has definitely gone up by more than 50k, the market will probably bear 100k right now so that holiday will have been an expensive one if they do finally take the house. We otoh cannot really ask if they can or put the house back on so are also in a shit position. The agent has told them there will be a serious price hike as the market currently stands.

I don’t just want to move on a whim btw. I need a downstairs bedroom and bathroom due to disability and struggled massively this winter. The stairs can be very dangerous when I’m not well and I can’t even put a stairlift in as they’re solid wood. I’ve even thought about installing a lift but I think we just need to accept the house isn’t right for us anymore. Had we known what we do now, the extension and downstairs layout would have been very different.

@Myhousemyhome why can't you put the house back on? Of course you can.

The markets mental here (Peak District). Houses on the market for less than a week and my house has gone up by £100k in two years 👌.

[quote girlmom21]@Myhousemyhome why can't you put the house back on? Of course you can. [/quote]
It will be resold quickly precisely as there is zero on here and the agent has people registered for our spec of houses. But they won’t necessarily wait like the buyers are. I’ve been through it with the agent. It’s a catch 22.

@Myhousemyhome have they started conveyancing/done survey? If not just put back on the market. Very weird, doesn’t sound like you are actually under offer.

Increasing prices aren't great for most as you end up paying more to move.

Myself and DH were debating selling this Summer (currently in our first owned 2 bed house and hoping to upsize to a 3 bed), but with all the rising prices of everything have decided to stay put for a couple more years.

We're in the South East and anything that does go on the market tends to sell within a day or two!

Slow??? The housing market her in Scotland is on fire.