Why isn't my flat selling?

[ratemyflatplease]

Not really an AIBU sorry.

I'm selling my flat at the moment and not getting much interest. I know that ultimately it'll come down to price. But that aside, is there anything in the description or photos that would put you off?

It's in SE London. 3 fair size bedrooms, one tiny box which is only big enough for a single but perfect as an office (which is how I currently have it).

Top floor, so no chance of outside space, which I think lots of people are looking for. Lease has been extended.

Taking a deep breath and posting Rightmove link: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139866227#/?channel=RES_BUY

@ratemyflatplease I don't know much about these things but could you buy the leasehold or however it works?

My mum's place was leasehold but she paid a bit to turn it into a freehold. It wasn't massively expensive to do. But then she'd lived there 25 years or something.

People are definitely put off by leasehold.

You have a lovely flat, with good kerbside appeal but I think there is not enough floor space for a 4 bed flat.
Can you remove the wall between bed 2 and 3. This would give you two fab sized bedrooms and a study. This also deals with the floor space issue as the reception room/kitchen size works well for a 2 bed.
Or market as 2 bedrooms, 1 study and one walk in dressing room for bedroom 2.
Also rejig photos on rightmove and dress up living room to be more cosy.

First pic of the blue bed is a lot more students than the rest of the flat and definitely shouldn't be the starting point. Dress the room, get a new pic, and have it further back in the deck.

Exterior photo needs cropping down to get rid of the extraneous quantities of road and surrounding buildings. Then you can make it the first photo.

Photo 6 makes the angles of that room look peculiar so drop that. Are there any wardrobes in that room? If so try for an angle that shows them.

Lose the glass table under the TV - far too wide, considering the narrowness of the room. Wall hang the TV if possible, or get the slimmest possible stand. Experiment with furniture layout in that room to see if you can get more usable or visual space.

There's a lot of furniture in the study, making it look smaller than it is. Remove as much stuff as possible from.there.

Drastic option: make the current living room into a dining room/study (not bedroom as some have suggested because that would make the kitchen location weird and inconvenient; and keep the study element as minimal as you can, suggest possible living room/playroom in the text); make the big bedroom into the primary living room; and have the box room as the 3rd bedroom, with the blurb suggesting it as nursery/home office. Try this on paper before lugging all the furniture around!

For advice:

Its not really a flat so much as a maisonette so relabeling it may help. Its also not 4 bedrooms, its 3 and an office really.

In an ideal world switch the bathroom into the study or bedroom 3 but thats clearly not going to happen due to being a huge change so the obvious practical thing is to make bedroom 1 the living room and the living room either the master bedroom of a dining room (with bedroom 2 becoming the master and it becoming a 2 bed).

A lick of paint might help, nothing crazy or garish maybe just a feature wall here and there in say a blush or sage or duck egg blue.

I'm sure a 2 bed (1 double master and 1 kids single) with large living room, dining room and office is likely more useful to people looking for a 'flat' than a 4 bed where most of the rooms barely fit a bed with no other furniture and the living room is tiny with a table crammed in.

Agree with people saying list it as a 3 bed, not a 4-bed: people looking for 4-bed places probably won't be looking for this sort of flat (a 4-bed flat, even if one of those is a box room/office, is pretty unusual, and most people searching for a 4-bed will be looking for a more standard family home).

The service charge is highish, but not wildly so. Average in London is at least £2k (I checked recently for something regarding my own flat).

It is a flat in London, it is what it is.
It is a nice flat in a great area.
The one area I think is letting it down is the lounge.
It is very narrow and there is no getting away from that.

I personally thing you need to go for the cozy warm look.
If you are going to spend money it is here - small but perfectly formed.
TV on the wall.
Paint or cover the radiator
Get rid of all the photos around the house - they look student like.
Introduce some cozy lighting, use fairy light or battery operated light
Add a couple of lamps - two nice statement lamps on the sideboard. Take every thing else off except some coffee table books and a candle.
You need colour, add some cushions and a throw
A nicer rug
Add a vase or two
Add some coffee table books
Add a picture gallery (use the sticky tape so you don't have to go into the walls).
Over the sofa do three prints close together
Add a plant or two
Look on Market place for what you can pick up, look on Pinterest & TK Maxx
(958) Pinterest
Best of luck

You're selling an idea that someone will want to see themselves living in the flat when you've left. At the moment I don't think those photos get that across.

I would think that the first picture should actually be of the property with your flat highlighted by using a 'ready-brek glow' line around it.

Next, I would use a few subtle but effective ways to dress each room (they can be moved from room to room for the photographs). The first picture I see is of a bed with a blue duvet cover on it. I'd make sure there were no creases in the duvet and I'd make the duvet really fluffy so that the bed looks comfortable and somewhere I could relax. At the moment it looks flat and not really comfortable.
In photo 3 of 13 there is a large wall with nothing on it. Could you borrow a mirror that would also deflect some light back into the room and mount it on the wall?
I'd set the dining table like you often see in catalogues for furniture, don't leave it empty - even having a bunch of flowers on the table would be a nice touch.
The radiator in the living room is very large behind the telly. Could you get a radiator cover for it? Also I'd consider getting a bracket and wall mounting the telly or putting it in the corner.

They are just my observations. I think you might need to get a few new photos taken and think of it like selling a lifestyle rather than just your flat.

Too many large furniture items in the space. It's not a big enough property for armchairs in bedrooms. You need photos without them.

It is a flat in London, it is what it is.
It is a nice flat in a great area.

Gypsy hill is not a great area, it’s fine but it’s not great.

I think it's the market OP

Ignore the helpful comments about the size of rooms: like you can change that 🙄

If you can drop the price, I think you'll get a buyer but perhaps you should delay selling until the spring

Are you using PropertyLog to see what other sellers of similar flats are doing?

https://www.propertylog.net/

Things that would put me off

1. Its being sold by Foxtons - their brash selling techniques put many people off. I have an irrational dislike of Foxtons and their branded cars etc and so would much prefer any other chain. Also in in my experience of selling they overvalue so as a buyer I would discount it, expecting it to be reduced in a month or so.
2. Its not "West Dulwich" - its West Norwood.
3. The reception room looks very poky - is there any chance of making the bedroom with the bookshelves into the reception room and the current reception room into a bedroom.
4. Its not a family home - its for sharers or a couple/ single
5. The service charge is very high

Whoever said TV on the wall that's a great idea.

It looks lovely and neutral.

Two of the bedrooms are bigger than the living room. Four bedrooms worth of people would struggle to live in the communal space.

Might you consider the living room as a dining room with the two armchairs (they do look lovely in the bedroom I know) and the 2nd bedroom as a living room?

Two living areas and two good size bedrooms with a small study/bedroom.

As PPs have said its mainly the living room/dining area

However, the main bedroom is lovely and I love the picture on the wall that looks like another window of a cityscape.
I also love your book shelves and your many books .
Bathroom is lovely too.

I would move the tv to where the unit is and put another sofa in so it is possible to see that two sofa's would fit in there (as a 3 bed property normally has more than two people in it

beautifully presented but you need to show that it can be lived in by a family and at the moment I can't see it

I think it’s just hard to sell places without gardens since lockdown. But dressing it up will help make people forget they want or need that because they love the vibe etc.

I would dress the study as a bedroom, and the big bedroom with the bookshelves as a lounge, and the current 'lounge diner' as a dining room with a sofa (no TV) and stop trying to sell it as a 4-bed. But I agree with others- ultimately, it'll be price.

We bought our 2 bed (non garden) flat in SE London in 2016 for 345k, right before Brexit, for 2016, so basically at the peak of the market. We put it on the market again in 2020, at the start of March just before lockdown, for 375k. Obviously in lockdown nothing was happening, then as house sales started up again we got very little interest, lowered to 350k, still very little interest, lowered to 325k, eventually sold it for 315k a whole year after it had originally gone on the market. We sold at the worst possible time really as with covid no one wanted a flat without a garden.

Anyway it worked out in the end, we live in a lovely big house now with a garden, and although we lost money it didn't particularly affect us too much financially. But honestly it just came down to the price, I hate to say it. It was styled immaculately, we followed much of the advice given on this thread, and at the end of the day it was price.

The major issue is the bedroom numbers are targeting families but there’s no outside space.

People look at size, location and monthly debt payment for the mortgage, moving stuff around will have minimal effect, especially in this market.

As others have said, the living room is the issue. Get rid/put into storage/a friends garage the sideboard and the dining table. Put the TV on the wall, some shelves to make it homely, and get a smaller table (drop leaf or extendable). The other spaces look good to me. The service charge is very steep!

I'd ask for the bit about 3 double bedrooms in the description to be amended, because you really don't have that. The room with the double in and not much else would be more suitable for a single bed in a child's room, though I realise you won't want to be buying beds etc. But at least have an accurate description.

I also think the estate agents have chosen a really weird pic as the first photo. If you restyle the bookshelves room as a lovely spacious lounge and use that as the first pic, I think it would be more appealing.

I wouldn’t have got past the first photo of not the nicest bedroom. The bedroom with the books is far, far nicer.