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?!

Unfortunately the are we want to buy in hasn’t been affected by the economy at all - houses are priced at an all time high and lots sell before they’ve even hit the market! Hence the reason we don’t want to drop the price of ours any further.

OP, We are cash buyers and are watching the market. We have seen houses come down by as much as £150000. It's a very strange time.
If you don't need to sell, don't.

Have they all got windows or are they internal?

No one on here can help unless we can see the house listing. I understand you not wanting to out yourself by posting though.

Understandable, but it could be something people on here could spot and give advice on, but that's your call.
On that basis, the only thing is the price and current uncertainty in the financial situation.

All have windows. Apart from the downstairs loo.

What timeframe are you talking about? There can't be much data on sales since the Iran war started, if any.

Well, so did we when I was a child, but I wouldn’t want to go back to that! But at least the loo was separate from the bathroom, as was usual then, when bathrooms only had a bath, no shower.

We did also have an outside loo, with resident spiders that means we never used it - it was originally meant for the skivvy and/or gardener when the house was built, pre WW2.

The ILs’ Edwardian house had much the same facilities.

Why do you want to move?

That's true. It must pre date that.

Regardless of how naice the area is
mortgage rates are high and so is col, this is making the market very slow as it’s only people that have to move who are moving

you need to consider who ever buys your house, needs to sell theirs

but as per pp it will sell at the right price, doesn’t mean it’ll be a price you like or reflect the actual worth of the property

I think this is a valid point. Mostly from the cleaning point of view. Who wants to have to clean four bathrooms?

Housing in the uk has been too expensive relative to wages for a long time. Demand has crashed, especially in "naice" i.e. expensive areas.

From about 2000 - 2020 the market for property in London, flats especially, was inflated by a) cheap money b) foreign investors c) demand for buy to let d) a tax & migration system that allowed people to make a lot of money fast doing up properties.

As a result you had a constant swarm of people making quick gains and this (coupled again with the cheap money) flowed through to high housing values in the south east.

Then came the issues with flats (cladding, escalating lease and service fees, massive drop off in foreign investment, reduction in tax benefits for buy to let landlords) and the current generation of younger workers are stuck.

They've lost money on flats or can't shift them at all. Interest rates are higher so they can't upsize. Rents are so high they can't save. If no one can afford to buy your house, it won't be worth what you think.

It took me a year to sell mine and to do so I had to drop it to what a neighbours v similar (slightly smaller) house sold for pre covid.

It’s probably as simple as not having found the right person. Families with younger children for whom the catchment is desirable, may be struggling with affordability due to increased mortgage rates (and expensive childcare). Older downsizers don’t have to consider school catchment so might be able to get more for less elsewhere. As you said, people are looking for lots of bedroom space now for office space/guests/step children. The fact the garage is separate might work against you: virtually all the 5 beds round here with integrated double garages have converted them into additional living space.

This. We’ve just bought and the flat we bought was 4 years old and in pristine condition. An absolute steal that should have been in a bidding war given it’s location. Was sold for 12% less that purchased for - great for us but the seller made a six figure loss.

You are selling at the bottom of the market (which means the 5 bed property you also want to buy will also be lower priced) BUT there will be much fewer people looking and much fewer larger/more expensive properties coming to market.

The economy is tanking, most people’s jobs are insecure, threats of property taxes are stalling the sale of properties at the top of the chain from where the money usually trickles down the chain. Appreciate you want to sell and upsize but it is a really bad time to be selling, which is why we haven’t actually put our main/family home on the market yet and are planning to wait at least 2 years.

It’s not your property. It’s the market. I’d bide your time.

Agree it’s a difficult market op.

We would have been a potential buyer for you last year. We have 3 bed and were considering upsizing to a 4 bed.

What put us off were the prices just to upsize to 1 bedroom. The house prices for 4 beds around us (south west) last year were £625k-£700k. Now, they have all gone down in price and you are looking at £600k or less with a lot of these 4 bed houses. Economy is really impacting things.

Petrol is going up by the day. I wouldn’t be looking to buy a propert right now with this uncertainty.

Totally agree with PPs that 4 bathrooms aren’t needed and not a good use of space and not worth the money.

In the end instead of upsizing house, we had a garden office installed. Much cheaper.

We also wouldn’t look at newbuilds tbh. They have a reputation as not being built to a high standard in comparison to slightly older houses.

I would just wait a couple of years then OP

On your answers, you appear to have a massive enormous house, tons of parking, neutral decor, outside bathrooms,landscaped garden with real grass, great catchment area for schools, no other new builds to compete with.

So you cant do anything other than keep reducing the price which you now say will affect your onward purchase

So you cant move.

What has your estate agent said?
Without pictures/ a link it is tricky but in general terms

• house prices are very high but stagnant

-Mortgage.rates.have.gone up due to Trump's antics

Definitely the current economic crisis. I live in a very sort after village which is popular with London commuters. Very little over £400-£500k is selling. We have some lovely new(ish) builds which have been sitting for sale for quite some time now.

Most of the men in DH family are builders and they are all saying work is starting to dry up, it’s not looking good out there.

Fingers crossed you will sell soon, good luck.

I agree with this, it's too many.

Would you be able to say, broadly, what area you are in?

Especially if you’ve got messy teens….

Its not your house, its the market. There are always people asking this on MN and Reddit recently - I find it very surprising that a lot of people don't seem to know that the property market is completely dead at the moment.

So you're getting your house viewed by strangers anyway, why not post the link?

A cleaner?