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

Good - it's not the property then,so make sure your buyers know that.
It'll sell, it's really nice!

These are really helpful suggestions - that you for taking the time to provide feedback :)

I wouldn't mess about reducing it by 5k. You're not pulling it into anyone's price range by doing that. £315k is more sensible.

I've not read the whole thread so apologies if someone's suggested it but could you rearrange the furniture and move a sofa the other side, to create more of a living space/dining space division. And photograph the open plan area that way? The other flat in your building at a similar price has done this (I actually think yours is nicer!)

Around 8 years ago, and be purchased it for the price that it is currently listed for sale. It was new build, he bought it off plan, so you do of course expect a slight drop in resale value.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree with you.

We will look to rearrange the furniture, do something about the balcony, and have the photos retaken.

I thought this too. The view from both the bedrooms is the same and I'd feel a bit overlooked if there was no other way to have the bed.

Your decor is lovely.

I see that all the light are on, but the place still looks gloomy to me.
Perhaps re-take some pics ?

Your ground rent is £250 which many lenders don't like. An indemnity may work.

Despite being referred to as a “long lease”, if your lease meets certain conditions, namely:

The ground rent is more than £250 per annum (or more than £1000 per annum in London)
You’re occupying the property as your sole and principal home
Then it falls under the provisions on Assured Tenancies under the Housing Act 1988.

The issue here is that if you then fall into ground rent arrears of 3 months, then the landlord has a right to apply to court to repossess the property under Ground 8 of the Act. Ground 8 is a mandatory ground for possession which means the court cannot refuse.

This can result in putting a lender’s security at risk and dramatically reducing the mortgage-ability and saleability of the property.

Most lenders are now reluctant to lend if, amongst other things:

Ground rents exceed £250 or £1000 in London at the start of the lease

You need to get rid of the grey and mustard everything plus the balcony photos

Is it residents parking or allocated parking?

That and the open plan kitchen / living space would be the two main reasons I wouldn’t view.

Eeshh. Yes, I think you are right. We are going to speak to them about this, or potentially try and switch agents. The problem is that we are locked into an 8 week period with this agent now, and only 2 weeks into that. I do not know what we will do if they make it difficult for us to end the contract with them prematurely.

Definitely move the beds! It’s a very American thing for them to be under the window and over here feels like there’s nowhere else for them - the rooms seem smaller. And lots of plants on the balcony, maybe throughout the flat too? It doesn’t look very homely. The kitchen is quite clinical. Add the extra chairs to the table too - show that it seats four! You could get someone to style it properly for new photos? I really don’t think they’ve done a great job with the pics to be honest. When we had our small one bed flat photographed it looked a lot lot bigger. If you think it is brighter and bigger in real life you could ask the estate agent to upload a video tour too. Good luck

Op your home is beautiful and what would put me off is the view outside onto the road/street. It looks quite bleak and I think I’d feel very lonely there.

Can you perk up the balcony a bit with some greenery in pots and make it look a bit more inviting.

It’s really annoying how RM doesn’t/can’t show the price a properly previously sold for.

How much did it cost you and when @househelp2025? this will help with the current valuation and whether it’s appropriate

Without looking I guessed £325k so price would seem ok. Its a nice flat, not everyone cares about overlooking the carpark

That's almost £200 pcm on service charges which is expensive on top of a monthly mortgage.

It is allocated parking, the parking space was purchased separately and now 'belongs' to the flat.

The flat is nice/ could do with sectioning off living room with a longer dining table. I think your main issue is where the flat is- every window view appears to be out in to concrete that would put me off

The bedrooms are tiny, the view isn’t good and the kitchen looks brown and gloomy. And it’s a daft developer thing to give you two bathrooms so they can call it luxury, but no storage space.

Maybe take a couple of new photos, with a big fake plant at each end of the balcony so there’s something green to look at outside? And put a bunch of flowers on the kitchen counter so there’s something cheerful in those photos. What is the kitchen splashback made of? Would it be easy / cheap to swap it for something in a nicer colour?

The description could be better too - it says walking distance to the city centre, rather than how long it takes to walk, so I’d be assuming they haven’t specified because the walk is 20 minutes plus. Some things about it can’t be changed, but your description of the commute to London is more appealing than the estate agents, so you could start there.

For me, the off-putting things are:

• no windows in the kitchen or either of the bathrooms. I refuse to buy anything with windowless bathrooms now as they end up getting damp and mouldy.
• balcony overlooking a car park
• service charge is high and who knows how much it could increase by

I'd defo switch agents. 1 - it will look like a fresh new listing and bump it to the top of people's searches. And 2 - the photos they've taken are awful! A good agent will take pictures which make the place look the best it can - they'd photoshop out the cars, they'd make the lighting better. LIke someone else said, a photo of the hall and the aspect when you walk in really helps me picture a property. So I'd switch agents, but one which you've researched and takes better pics.

If your table can fit 4 people round it then display it like that for the photos. It looks like you can't sit anywhere.

Also agree re balcony. A few plants would make a big difference.

Your flat is perfectly nice but it’s expensive. Nobody is buying at the moment because everyone’s anticipating a market fall. The U.K. simply doesn’t have the salary growth to support prices at current levels, and all the little bits of stuff that were propping up the end of the market under the last govt are coming to an end.

If you can drop your price I’d drop a bit more than you expect in this market to get a sale - otherwise you run the risk of chasing the market down and not selling in the meantime.

Good luck OP - it’s not a great time for property. The constantly expectation of increasing prices that people have had for over two decades just isn’t sustainable in the long term, and it’s all petering out.

Pictures 3 & 4 won’t be doing you any favours. The pictured generally are very badly taken. It looks dark, I’m sure it’s not.

Picky me here again! Can you put some planters on your balcony? The other thing that hit me was all your curtains are pulled to one side. Don't know why but that jarred with me and yes I could change that but I'm wondering if this can't be changed, it would irritate but that's me

Other people have commented about the lack of windows in the bathroom. Have no idea how expensive this is but could you get some of those glass bricks and make a window into the hall or line them down one side of the doors? Probably cost too much.

New photos on a brighter day would help

Yes, this. I didn't look at the pictures and went straight for the leasehold info and I wouldn't buy a flat with that service charge or ground rent, unfortunately. I struggled to sell a flat due to ground rent issues and they are a nightmare.

If this ends up being a bit of an issue in the future, there's plenty of info on the National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group. There are things you can do such as the indemnity insurance and a deed of variation, but I'd definitely be looking for a cash buyer. Or it may not be an issue in which case you're lucky. 😃 I was just chatting to someone and we both had noticed that the market is slowing down because people don't tend to move over the summer. I think things pick up around September. Good luck!