AIBU to ask why so many £1m houses....

[Locationvshousevsgarden]

..have very old bathrooms and /or kitchens and need updating ? We are house hunting and I am genuinely perplexed by the amount of houses in this bracket that still need money spent on it ! I would have thought that a lot of houses in this bracket would be immaculate and only require new flooring or one bathroom or painting throughout but no.... out of the over 15 we looked at over 10 of them require significant work and updating. It just baffled me and I suppose I thought at this level and price most places will be in excellent condition or move ready.

I should also add - we have spent a lot of money undoing home 'improvements' of the people who owned the house before us! At some point in the 50s and 60s it was de rigour to strip out period features. Our house is Edwardian, and we've spent a lot of money having to put all those things back in.

Certainly where I live there’s a fair bit of that.

but there’s also stuff like some properties at that level are period houses and many people feel it’s just not appropriate to put a random modern kitchen in (for example) a fifteenth century thatched cottage.

even stuff that is 60s or 70s can be done as period - so for example I have a friend who lives in a seventies terrace and the whole house is furnished with 70s furniture, the kitchen and bathroom are 70s style etc. (her husband is an architect).

at this level it’s less about old people dying and houses being old fashioned )although that does happen) and more about people choosing stuff that isn’t necessarily what’s in fashion now.

It sounds like £1 million plus houses in your area are owned by older residents and they just won’t generally update their houses as much because they’re a different generation and of a different mindset. That said, houses over £1 million in areas like that are struggling to sell so if that is the bracket you are looking at: make an offer! We did just that and got 25% off asking price.

Yes I think yiu are right ! We haven't made any offers yet and they do seem to hang around... care to share your experience and where you compromised if at all ?
Also why do you say they struggle to sell in areas like that ?

Probably being sold by a boomer who bought it for the price of a 5 year old Vauxhall corsa. But as with most of us, don’t have the cash in the last 15 years or so to renovate.

(No hate boomers, it was a sign of the times)

As people have said, value comes from a lot of things. If you went down a bedroom, for example, but kept the same price, it would probably be in better shape.
(I’m not saying you should look for one less bedroom, just giving an example)

A lot of these people moved in many years and didn’t actually pay a million pounds so maybe they can’t afford to update?

A lot of older people live in these high value properties, probably for many many years. They may be asset rich but cash poor particularly if they’re lower income pensioners.

I understand your view and I notice that these houses often are overpriced and have to adjust expectations unless they are in an exceptional position/lication.

OP, we bought a £5m house in London with no kitchen, no lights, wonky floors hideous bathrooms. It's called a fixer upper.

We have just absolutely bust a gut and spent about 2k prepping our house so it looks attractive to sell.

All the estate agents who valued it priced it basically the same as the other similarly sized houses on the same streets. The prime locations near the park get 15k more, the side streets without parking get 15k less.

Looking nice helps get people in the door, but it doesn't do a massive amount for final value.

if it’s functional why rip it out? Our bathrooms aren’t v modern but it’s really not environmentally friendly to rip out functional bathrooms that aren’t your taste. And your taste will probably be totally different in 10 years to.

From what I’ve seen the vast majority of UK housing stock at all price brackets is in a dire state of repair. Cost of living + declining living standards overall no doubt contribute. But also at the cost of building work these days it’s unlikely you’ll even recoup what you spent, let alone compensation for the hassle and risk of renovation. Oh let’s not forget the government grabbing a 20% bonus of whatever you spend on trying to make the place more modern. So yeah most houses are in appalling state, much like everything else.

Around here 1 million on a standard Victorian 3 bed terrace would mean it was as close to uninhabitable as you can get whilst still being mortgageable. I’d expect 90s fittings trashed by decades of renters and an iffy smell.

Not sure why you would be surprised? That is the housing market. We paid an awful lot more than that last year for a house we are currently gutting.
My advice would be to buy the one that is in the best place, structurally sound, but shittest on the inside. People today seem to have zero vision so you can upgrade and add an awful lot of value.

Where I live (not UK) 1M gets you an old, century old shack. Most people buy it, tear it down and build a new one.

I, however, live in a social housing and cannot even dream of every owning a house. even though I have a very good job and have worked most of my life. So, yes, there is that.

A relative has recently put their 5 bed g2 listed house on the market for £1.5m (middle of valuations).

They spent a huge amount of money on it when they bought it 20 years ago including a new kitchen and two new bathrooms.

They debated about redoing kitchens and bathrooms to sell but decided against it. Partly because there is nothing wrong with anything. It all still works well and is in good nick. Partly because, as others said above, many people will want things exactly to their taste and will rip them out. Their kitchen is shaker style and doesn’t look particularly dated. Plus the estate agent said it wouldn’t really add much value if any at all.

However, they’re looking to downsize, ideally a bungalow in a central location so they can manage in old age. They have seen some bungalows that are £800k plus that haven’t been touched since the 80s, with no kitchens/just one or two units and a sink. My guess is they’re aimed at developers who’ll be looking to knock the bungalow down and put up two new build houses in its place. They are centrally located and in catchment for outstanding schools. From a financial perspective it’s the sensible move, hence no point in making the houses look habitable.

This. Lots of people who have money, have it because they're careful with it. Dont get a new kitchen every 5 years - they get a decent spec one and expect it to last 20, 25 years.

We didn’t really compromise on anything, it’s not an old house, so luckily everything was quite new and decorated beautifully. It needs some painting and general maintenance though as the previous owners were quite elderly and there was only so much they could keep on top of. But we fell in love with it, it was our dream house and I’d call the agents regularly checking it was still available (they wouldn’t consider an offer until we had sold ours).

If you are noticing the houses over £1 million are struggling to sell in your area, and are on the market 6 months to a year, I would say make an offer if it is a house you love. Do your homework - look at sold prices, square footage and call the agents and be bold and confident and honest about what you think it is worth, what you can pay, how much you love it… and mention the updating it needs. But at that price bracket, make sure you do love it… stamp duty alone will be eye watering (over £60,000)!

The cost of living is affecting everyone.

We bought our house in that price bracket a few years ago. We planned to do a utility room extension and change bathrooms, etc. But then all the builders buggered off post Brexit and the cost of the planned extension doubled. And the Truss budget pretty much doubled our mortgage repayments. And then Labour slapped VAT on school fees. And then stupid wars pushed the oil price up (no gas here so we have an oil boiler). We are paying thousands more a month just to stand still. So the utility room is unextended and the bathrooms are a bit old and knackered. 🤷‍♀️

Yep. For £2.5m I got 80s fittings, collapsing ceilings and many, many “iffy” smells! Not a single thing you would keep, other than the actual structure.

A lot of houses in this bracket round us are being sold by people who have lived in them for 30-40 years. They are dated but still good houses. Then the new people put the new kitchen in!

My immediate thought was that the people who own these £1m houses are probably older, bought the house two to three decades ago with a mortgage of two and a half times annual salary and possibly updated their kitchen/bathroom then to the standard of the day.

They've then lived there since then, happy with their kitchen/bathroom; or, if not happy, still on a similarish income as when they bought the house, with the cost of replacing the kitchen/bathroom nowadays outstripping what they could afford to do. Especially if they have since retired and have significantly less money coming in too.

I see a lot of houses round my way that this would describe. Just because their house is worth that much NOW, doesn't mean they'd be in a position to buy it NOW at the price it now commands.

Like my late Father. It was untouched from 50 years ago and there was no way he was ripping out kitchens in his 80’s.

We were inundated with offers because it was a desirable part of London and a blank canvas

Where is this? Just being nosy!