AIBU to wonder why our fairly priced new-build house is not selling?

[Housesellinghelp]

We have a 5 year old ‘new build’ is a very mumsnet ‘naice’ area in the catchment area for some of the best state schools in the UK. A big 4 bed with four bathrooms, decorated very neutral and fairly high end - it’s definitely a nicer than usual new build. Garden isn’t overlooked, triple driveway, neighbours are staggered so not cramped. Three large doubles and a single bedroom (that could get in a double at a push).

We had our house valued by 3 separate agents. All valued the house between £675-£700k. We listed at £675 as we’d like a fairly fast sale. That was 8 weeks ago. 4 weeks ago we reduced to £649k as we’d had 8 viewings and no offers, and we’ve since had a further 2 viewings but that’s it.

I’ve looked at houses for sale in the area and also houses that have recently sold. We aren’t priced above what seems average. We had our house for sale a couple of years ago very briefly and received an offer for £690k but we changed our minds and pulled out of the sale.

The estate agents have no feedback for us either. They say nobody looks around and criticises anything. The only after viewing feedback we’ve had is that a couple of viewers wanted something a bit bigger/a 5 bed.

Any ideas as to why the house isn’t selling?!

Yes, putting 100"s of thousands of pounds of borrowing on the "deal with later" pile is always a risk.

Do you mean sellers?

Not if they bought a NB in the last 5/6 years when there was a race on and prices went mad
As previously mentioned new house premium all those nice upgrades offered are not free plus if you want a NB you dont want a 5 year old house
You wont have paid off very much and I agree with @KeepPumping
Juat because you paid X for it 3 years ago doesnt mean you will get the same now for your 3 year old house particularly if people get caught up in all the developer blurb , Insta for that development etc

People did get caught up in all the insta crap I think, really sad, it is a large box near a roundabout on the edge of town in many cases, a lot of those buyers have already lost money.

It wouldnt necessarily be 100s of thousands as it was limited to 20% of the purchase price, so typically 40-60K for a FTB however if your mortgage effectively doubled, CoL, redundancy etc then it becomes tricky once you reach the 5 year point when interest kicks in
Plus interest charge is CPI plus 2% evaluated every April
The trouble is most people did not anticipate mortgages doubling as interest rates had been so low for so long

Yep. My home town is somewhere we can't afford to live. The town we live in has 3 bed terraces for around £150k, the town we grew up in the same house would be £300k.

If you start looking at only 5 bed detatched properties in my home town the very cheapest available is £680k, in the town we've had to live in it's £400k and far fewer to choose from.

I'm not begrudging the OP a lovely home and a high enough income to buy and sell around the £700k mark. We've had a lovely "family home" (only a family home because a family lives here, it's not detatched and we only have one bathroom) but we had to buy a Victorian terrace to get somewhere we could afford with the number of bedrooms we needed and a garden. We also weren't able to live where we wanted to because of gentrification. Our parents, our sports clubs, our church, it's all still in that home town that we go to weekly, we engage in the community as much as we can but we can have a much better quality of life living in a cheaper home in another town.

We live near a very posh market town and new 5 beds are £895k.
However ours has been reduced as my illness means we have to move. I'm paying the same for a mobility friendly terraced two bed albeit it's a period property. It's madness and having never owned a modern house before this I had no idea there was such a small group of buyers. I love the house and the location but it's not shifting or getting many views. I can't afford to reduce it to what I paid as I can't buy my onward home.
I feel really concerned after reading all the responses.

I think you are going to need to adjust your expectations… the market simply isn’t good for sellers right now.

@PeonyPatch I've adjusted them by £100k .
However today another modern house was launched at my original price. I'd be surprised if it sells as it in a high density development, We're not
I got caught in 2008 and I'm really struggling with this now.

It’s really tough. Can you not adjust the price of the house you go onto buy?

@PeonyPatch absolutely not as the have the estate agent from hell ( they won't let me review until I've sold). Their agent is known for overpricing but it's not really too much in the scheme of things. Although they're looking for a profit!

I’m haven’t read through 260 posts, but surely it’s already been pointed out that it’s not a new build anymore.

I’m not really understanding, are you doing a part exchange or something?

It's irrelevant if that's the going rate or not. The vast majority of people cannot buy a £650k house.

No.

Looks like you’ll need to buy a cheaper house then!

Can you get a ground floor maisonette?

Without actually seeing your house its a total waste of a thread.

Your decision not too post link but you cant expect any helpful feedback !

One person’s constructive is another’s passive aggressive.

Your onward purchase needs to reduce their price, you have to negotiate hard and avoid sellers that just can"t or won"t accept the economic reality of where we are.

Not now anyway, they can"t get the mortgage anymore, the people selling have obviously overpaid and need to adjust their expectations.

Without reading all the replies, my first thought is you need to have a serious conversation with your estate agent. Why hasn’t he got feedback for you? Is he updating you on what he’s doing to sell it? Does it need a refresh with another agent, new pics, new energy etc

If the price is wrong none of the "staging" stuff works, people just scroll past. The best thing is to work out the monthly mortgage payments with a mortgage calculator and think seriously if your target buyer can/will pay that much to live there.

Very true, it is easier to compare other nearby similar houses as well.

Things are likely to be subdued as people are worried about inflation and mortgage rates so market will slow down and you need to reduce it slightly to get a sale. On the plus side the house you want to buy will also need to reduce price so it all works out overall!

Agree! People will check what you paid for it