Please give your opinions on why we have not had any viewings on our flat? Listing included

[househelp2025]

Hi there,

We are trying to sell our flat and have not had a single viewing. I know that this is typically either due to the price a property is listed at or something to do with the way it has been marketed.

I would be enormously grateful for any feedback on the listing and what (if anything) might deter you from booking a viewing?

It is a long lease - just shy of 999 years, and has a designated parking space in a private secure car park under the flat.

Is it the photos? Is the price too high? Something else?

Thanks in advance!

Flat listing

I'm not that poster and I'm aware southern prices are crazy compared to northern price but don't pretend that a 2 bed flat is all you can get for £325k. Many people who live there have said its overpriced. Past prices don't matter the market for flats in London and surrounding areas has completely bottomed out.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/160752275#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154240133#/?channel=RES_BUY

You don't need a 4 bed detached to make the point that theres far better options out there that OP is competing with. You could even possibly get a 4 bed house in that prices and they aren't tiny, over looked, surrounded by depressing 'yard' and including extortionate ongoing fees. You would be MAD to buy a flat over a house in this market.

The main appeal of OPs place would be as I said earlier to students (according to google its 8 minute walk to ARU chelmsford uni) but (and I only know the northern market so might be different) where I live students tend to rent not buy.

The first one isn’t close to the station, so not as good for commuters. The bedrooms are tiny and it isn’t clear whether the loft room is formally converted or not. The only bathroom is a shower room on the ground floor with what looks like a washing machine in it.

The second one needs a lot of work and doesn’t have parking.

It looks like both are in a slightly different area - I don’t know what that area is like, but may not be as nice if houses are that much cheaper?

If I was looking to buy in Chelmsford on that budget I’d actually prefer OP’s flat.

If you are commuting to London, 1.3 miles or 2 miles to the station isn't good. You would have to drive and pay for parking. What OP has to worry about is that it is possible to get a 325k to 350k 2 bed flat in places like pinner (zone 5 london, near good schools and leafy) and that is on the tube and commuting costs far lower.. but perhaps some people really want to live in Chelmsford though if it was about cost, you would find that a 325k flat vs a 400k flat is around £300 difference in terms of mortgage costs (4.37% rate) and while that isn't a small amount of money, the money you spend on rail fares and driving to station and petrol for a couple can easily be that plus the cost of time. So in a way OP's flat price should reflect that since such a flat is primarily for commuters.

I live in zone 3 and my 2 bed flat is still worth £400k. My dh actually cycles to work and it's 20 mins to Tottenham court road for me.

Those are clearly not the only two places available, it was simply pointing out that 'in chelmsford' you could get a 4 bed since people are acting like thats insane. There is several other properties all over the area including equivalant 2 beds for sale that do not have all the fees and have better future return.

OPs flat isn't £325k its £325k (so your monthly mortgage) plus £2.6k a year 'rent' (purely lost money). That is every year (which can also go up too) that you live there... on top of that it is rapidly devaluing as the demand in the 'flat' market falls as does London and the surrounding areas which have hit the ceiling and can only fall. Flats are constantly subject to changing laws that you cannot have any control over (look at things like the cladding issues since grenfell) and are likely to become near impossible to sell (well not without huge losses) in future.

You can of course feel free to buy OP flat despite the current market, I'm sure she will be delighted to offload it. You can contact the EA via the rightmove link to make your offer.

Lots of people talking so knowledgeably about an area they know nothing about that the op has pounced on. And yet twice now the op has ignored my very specific, local knowledge of the flat market in Chelmsford. Go figure.

I see what you mean about Beaulieu. There’s no comparison.

https://beaulieuestates.co.uk/property/28-choat-place-beaulieu-park-cm1-6hs/

And a new railway station opening in Beaulieu this year (the first in a generation in the region) with loads of parking, so commuting is is a doddle.

Plus flats with views across the lovely Victorian park on the market for less / same money, in a much nicer part of the city.

and that’s before you take into account the price / service charge.

When we were buying dh said that while he wanted a flat it mainly made sense in zone 1 or 2 (or in a zone 3 area like highgate) cos the house is over a million and ftb really can't afford that (nor can most Londoners). Plus no stamp duty ftb discount if above 500k. Our budget didn't stretch to highgate but we bought as close as possible to that.

But tbh the flats in Kensington have fallen far more than any other areas due to changes in taxes, non doms leaving, brexit etc etc. It's not the flats in the outer spiral of London and the Home Counties though they have stagnated. And the Kensington flats don't have cladding problems, they are very handsome mansion blocks and usually share of freehold and the service charge wouldn't be an issue for the people who are potential buyers.

The property is smaller than the OP's flat according to the given measurements. The living room kitchen area is a bit shorter but wider. Both bedrooms are smaller, one significantly so; both are narrower, one by as much as a foot but they've managed to make them look not so in the photographs. Both bathrooms are smaller as well.

This and the OP's thread remind me that it would be a good idea to check the estate agent's figures and do your own measuring, whether selling or buying. A room may be an irregular shape with a narrower part and the agent will quote the widest part of the room. The OP's floorplan doesn't suggest that and the OP's bedrooms on the given measurements are not narrow but the photographs and furniture arrangement do make them appear so.

It’s in a much more desirable location and it’s freehold.

Beaulieu still has a service charge, even in freehold , but agree all round. ( that agent is ace at photos I’ve sold and purchased a few things through them )

I’ve no idea about the location, but op’s place can’t hold a candle to that one.
She’ll have to decimate the asking price to get any interest at all.

Most balcony’s overlook a car park or road tbf.

You need some of those 'window' panels that they have in IKEA 😁

Also not understanding why it would be considered small. It’s 847 sq ft according to the floor plan which isn’t bad for a 2 bed flat.

@househelp2025

I agree - definitely worth a relatively low budget overhaul of the balcony- an outdoor rug, some plants, some sort of screening over the railings, etc.

Why would you have windows in the bathrooms in a block of flats? That would mean another room would have to be windowless. I've looked at a lot of flats online as I'm thinking of downsizing sometime and I haven't seen any with a window in the bathroom. That's why the kitchens are part of the living rooms as otherwise they would need a window.

Does anyone know whether the monthly charges are likely to be around forever? I just can't afford to pay up to £3,000 per year for that, especially as you don't know whether it'll go up at any time.

Edited first line as it didn't make sense.

Of course you can have windows in bathrooms in a block of flats, it simply depends on the design of the block. I have bought flats with windows in because both front and back of the flat, its front and back of the block, great for air flow. I wouldnt buy a property without windows in bathrooms and neither would I buy a property without a proper separated kitchen, with a window.

You need to be mindful of the risk of damp in a bathroom with no windows but it’s not inevitable that there will be problems if you take steps to maintain it - keep the door open after use, extractor fan/dehumidifier.

Last flat I lived in the bathroom had a window but there was mould on the ceiling because the flat had a damp problem due to some issue with the roof 🤷‍♀️ (it was rented so I couldn’t fix it myself)

I didnt mention damp or problems in the bathroom, when I talked of air flow (if thats what you're referring to) Im talking about the air flow in the flat, that you have air flowing through the whole flat front to back, or side to side depending on how your block is built. I userd to have front and back windows open in very stuffy London summers.

Thats important in terms of air freshness, particularly in very hot weather.

(theres a long thread at the moment about some poor persons flat which doesnt have a front and back so no air flow)

obviously it is designed for a specific market probably young executives not families etc. it is not somewhere I would consider I would hate sitting on the balcony overlooking a carpark. I think your furnishings fit the type of place it could be the price and also appealing to such a limited market

I dunno, can’t you just open the other windows? what does that have to do with bathrooms? (Not being sarky, genuinely confused)

Well technically nothing to do with bathrooms, but I was sort of semi responding to the poster above who said that you're not going to get a bathroom with a window in a flat, otherwise another room would have to be without a window.

That implies that all blocks of flats are built without a back (or a side) ie, there is only one wall or two walls side by side which are outside to have windows.

Its like back to back houses, they only have windows on the front. Perhaps one room on the side will have a window depending on how its been built

But there are many blocks which have windows in the rooms on opposite sides to each other, so when you open the living room window at the front, and then the kitchen or bathroom window at the back of the flat, you have great air flow through which keeps it cool and fresh.

These blocks that are built without that capacity not only have 'internal' kitchens but also bathrooms, not great.

That’s what I do - neither of my bathrooms have windows
I just open the living room/kitchen windows and the bedroom ones. Mine is blissfully cool though even in summer, it stays around 4-5c cooler than outside

Also relying on extractor fans and dehumidfiers and the like (also portable aircon) is just more equipment in the house, gadgets and/or electricity and cost.