To thing some homeowners are taking the mick

[headlic]

A house on our road was sold for £600k in Dec 2021 & has been put on the market for £735k. The house is exactly the same inside and out aside from a lick of paint and new furniture. Are housing in the south east increasing as such a rate? I thought house prices were going to stagnate for a few years.

I am really disappointed. Our children are looking to buy a house and increases like this make it seem completely impossible. I thought they would be able to get something decent, I didn't account for a 20% increase for house prices.

The previous owners of the house were a dinner lady and a bus driver. The current owners are a dentist and an accountant in their early 30s. Lovely couple but just an example that home ownership is going to be impossible for so many people.

There's a house I know of a couple of villages over that was on a couple of years ago for 1950K, it's down to 1500k now, but still (IMHO) overpriced. Was originally a pair of farm workers cottages (friend's grandad lived in one for a while 60 years ago), 2 up 2 down, outside loo down the garden, but converted and extended over the years to 5 beds. Is just not nicely laid out, partly due to the 2 sets of stairs, what was small rooms are still narrow rooms even if extended, the family bathroom and one of the en suites are bigger than 5th bedroom which is a smidge bigger than the other ensuite, there's a bizzare double doors onto a balcony off one en suite, yes a nice view but it's odd (I don't wallow in the bath maybe some do but the bath is to the side of the room and not capitalising on the balcony view). Both main bedroom have double doors out onto a linked balcony, with similar views across countryside as the ensuite balcony but the agent has ignored this as a selling point and there are no photos of it! And the kitchen is smallish but not really big enough for dining too, it's just a small not family sized table that will fit (narrow room), and the kitchen is situated at the far end from the lounge/conservatory/office/snug, with both sets of stairs between, the garden is mainly on the frontage which is a busy road so being set back is OK, but I can't imagine any good for small kids. I think it's main redeeming feature is plenty of parking, a double garage and you could walk to the station.
1200K and you might get someone down from London buy it.
(My friend and I keep marvelling at the price!!)

We got £3k below our asking price and it sold 2 days after being in the market.
Didn't expect as much interest but there you go. Down sized and still living in the profit 4 years later. Was in the market at the right time in the early 90's but I feel for my kids who are all renting. Realistically they will never get on the housing ladder and it's a sad fact of life. Even when dh and I push off the perch, by the time it is divided up with his kids and mine [large family] they will get a small inheritance each but nothing to get excited about.

Which is why people need to stop worrying about falling birthrates….

I do think it’s a mix of:

1. Net migration (cannot count just numbers in, need to take off those leaving)
2. Lack of house / flat building
3. Increased numbers of single person / single parent households (every family separation / person living without a partner needs additional housing.)

A house is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. The value of property usually goes up but it can also come down.

A lot of estate agents overprice to please the client and then when it doesn't sell suggest reducing it. It's best to be suspicious of an overly high valuation.
If no one thinks it worth the money in comparison to the other nearby houses they will not get any offers.
I think my house has increased about 80 percent in 13 years at a guess.

At the end of the day it will sell for what somebody is prepared to pay for it and it has always been like that. Individuals can ask whatever they want but at the end of the day unless the price is correct the property won't sell. A relative put their house on the market for what we discussed was a fair price. The agent suggested another £50k on top and we said no. House sold the day it went on the market to the first person to view it who was a cash buyer! Enabled the relative to purchase the property they wanted.

OP, wouldn’t you sell your house for the max amount you could get for it?

I will likely inherit half of my mum's house. My best guess it that I will be around 70 when this happens...

There's an EA who is very popular in my area and has tried to sell quite a few flats in my block. No one here has been successful in selling in the past couple of years due to the service charge and various issues in the building, but when the owner withdraws the flat from the market the EA marks it as 'sold' on their website and Rightmove. In their Google reviews there were quite a few complaints about it. One woman said they've been marketing her property on and off without her consent for years.

We bought in Feb 2021 and based on what similar houses are selling for around here at the moment is has increased in value by 25%! It seems insane as although we have redecorated, replaced flooring, replaced log burner it is essentially the same house!

House prices are going up everywhere. Even where I live and it's not really a desirable place to live. My sister bought her house in the 90's for £32k. She recently had it valued at £250k. For a Victorian 4 bed terrace with a small yard. Was only last year house's were selling for £150k on their street.

I agree and Im in the SE too, houses in our area just aren't selling though and I've noticed they eventually get reduced and more often than not just get taken off the market.

There is a house on our street that went up for 425, then reduced to 400 then last week reduced to 390, the only difference between ours is that they have a downstairs loo and we paid 375 for ours in October.

There is a house in the street we moved from up for 275, 30k more than we sold ours for. Its the third time in 2 years its been listed - some people are being totally unrealistic about house prices.

The few houses that are fairly priced go very quickly.

The vendors don't control the market. The house will sell at a price people are willing to buy it for.

We made a lot of money on our last house with minimal investment in it. Part of it was luck in the stamp duty levels changing. Part of it strategic, we knew it would sell if we needed to move as it was slap bang in the middle of 2 outstanding secondary schools and 10 mins walk to the station.

We were there for only 5 years but made circa 40% on it. Having said that, the house we wanted to buy had also gone up.

I think it’s a buyers’ market at the moment - certainly where we are - so if it’s overpriced it’s not going to sell. For comparison we bought our present house in 2019 for less than £200,00 and renovated throughout. We considered selling last year and the EA valued it at £325k. Looking at local house prices, if we marketed it at that price, I think we’d have to accept a substantially lower offer. The one thing we do have going for us is one of the best high schools in the area is just round the corner from us, so possibly that would make the difference.

I think the point about schools is also relevant. If the local primary or secondary gets upgraded to Outstanding (or whatever the new equivalent is) then some buyers will pay a premium for that, where they wouldn't have ten years ago when the school was, say, Good. Not saying I agree with that, merely that it's a factor.

This isn’t really true. I thinks it’s area dependent and some young people can have really good salaries.

My dd and her DP are mid 20’s. They have a combined income of over £70K. They could afford to buy a family sized property. They decided to live in a house share after university and have about £50K saved for a deposit.

Edited to add: they have not received an inheritance or any money from family at all.

I think this is area dependent. Where I live houses are selling quickly.

The Office for National Statistics figures for (net) migration for 2023 was 685,000 (not 906,000).

Additionally, 231,100 new homes were built in 2023, according to EPC data (and not the 133,213 you assert).

Yes, a clear imbalance but not quite as grotesque as you say

We asked the EA to put the house on the market at £20k over his valuation. We sold it within a week for asking price. Sometimes they will undervalue for a quick sale so best to do your own research.

@headlic I'm not entirely surprised. It depends on the area, of course, but nationally there's a dearth of housing supply and market forces dictate that when demand outstrips supply, prices increase. I've voted YABU due to your thread title as I don't believe homeowners are "taking the mick" generally. They usually set their asking price at what they are advised by their estate agent - they may price it lower if they're keen to sell quickly or go higher if they're not, but if the house isn't worth the asking price it simply won't sell and they'll be forced to drop it anyway.

Can't really help what the market value is. Our house was 180,000 when we bought it and now houses on our street are being sold for 380,000 and upwards.

We have a new build estate in our village being done in stages. Exactly the same house.

First phase sold in 2020 - sold for £350k ish
second phase 2022 - £475k (house prices went crazy here and the market was impossible)
now being marketed at £575k

The market here is now very slow, and so many properties on the market. Prices are not being reduced anywhere near pre Covid levels tho, most have doubled in value. When they don’t sell, the sellers either just sit and wait (some stuff has been on 2years +), take it back off or maybe reduce by 5% and it does generally go at some point

It has always been this way though. We bought our house in 1985 in 5 years it had doubled in price.
I don't think it's fair to say it's homeowners fault they will only be putting the house on the market at a price it has been valued at

Homeowners aren't charities. If it isn't worth it, it won't sell.

My neighbours tried this put it on the market for 40k more then it was bought for 18 months prior. No works done, garden and house in worse state etc.
Surprise surprise it didn't sell then they had the audacity to try and blame us as we have children and this apparently put off buyers which is absolute rubbish as my children are not noisy and although we have a garden they are never in it unsupervised.
In the end it didn't sell as it was completely overpriced!