London property market - what are you offering?

[LittlePickleHead]

Just wondered if anyone is currently putting offers on houses at the moment? We've been outbid a few times and have gone to best and final ona. House we really want. It's hard as crazy offers are what are inflating the market, but at the same time we are desperate to get something as prices are ever rising.

Is offering more than 10% than asking crazy if we can afford it? What sort of offers are others making? The place needs work so I am a little worried that the cost of the house plus the cost of work will be more than what the house is worth finished, but at the same time it's already had offers over asking so we probably need to go in high.

Argh!

Argh indeed! This is the problem with offers over in London (or anywhere) - you don't know what the other person is offering. If you are in speculative mood, I would say that prices here are going up at a rate that might make what you pay now seem reasonable in a year's time BUT who knows when there will be a correction along that will wipe that value away? Offer what you can, factoring in interest rate rises etc.

Well our offer was accepted but now I'm worried we have over offered. How can we know? Comparing sold prices is pointless as prices have been rising so quickly. Don't want to make a huge mistake because we were panicking!

I think that the only way to decide this is to think about what you're happy to pay. You may pay more than what the estate agent says the house is worth but if you love the house and can afford an extra £x per month, then go for it. At the end of the day, in a market in a state of flux, you can never be completely sure how house values will change. So if you're buying somewhere to live in rather than to flip, work out what you can afford, buy somewhere you love and give the world the finger from your snug new nest once you're in!

Good advice above. Anecdotally 10% over is not at all unusual where people are bidding against each other, but better to get there in stages rather than all at once (ie if you knew that 7% over didn't work it isn't quite so awful to add another 3% on top).

Unless you want to make a quick buck only you can decide how much a particular house is worth to you. Each house is unique (although some are obviously similar). When you are buying something unique fixing a market price is always harder as there are so many variables and what is hugely important to you may mean nothing to another prospective purchaser.

Hope it goes well.

It's really difficult. We're in the SE and outside of London, but still, we have offered very near asking on a house we very much want.

It's been accepted but we had a couple of slightly lower offers refused first. I think people are aware that the market is on the up, and it frightens buyers into offering more than they normally might.

I don't know if we have over offered. The survey suggested it was overpriced by about 7.5 thou considering the work needed, and we've offered 2.5 under asking.

The thing is fear of someone else coming along and saying they will pay more.

It is difficult especially when the market is being imo artificially inflated like this - it doesn't feel fair but then, it is just the way money works, it goes up and comes down all the time.

It could be worth pennies in 50 years.

My friend in north London buying at the moment has found everything worth having was getting offers 10 percent over asking, and even 'ideal' buyers with big deposit, nothing to sell were finding it tough. It is difficult -but I think if you believe a place is inherently decent, aren't too stretched financilly, and are looking for a home rather than a place to turn over for profit, you'll probably be OK. We bought a year ago, and just promised ourselves we'd overpay on the mortgage while rates were low to insure against a fall - what else can you do?

Frustrating how housebuying forces you into this position of being a speculator when you just want somewhere to live!

Well it's less than we were looking at paying in other areas, it needs work but the bones of it are great (all original fireplaces and front door still in place, coving, huge rooms).

It really could be lovely once finished, the street is lovely and it's close to good schools etc so I guess it will always be 'desirable'. We are not trying to make a quick buck, but you never know what the future holds so I don't want to think we are overpaying and putting ourselves in a situation where we can't recoup costs if we have to.

Bluegrass, there just isn't the option of going up in increments at the moment, you literally see a place once, put the offer in when you get back home (we offered at asking) then the agent comes back and asks for final offers. I knew we would be gutted if we offered lower than what we felt we could afford and didn't get it.

It sounds lovely.

I am wondering now if they accepted our lower offer because we're cash buyers.

Mind you it doesn't look like they have found anywhere to rent yet. Bit concerned we'll never be able to move in!

and i'm SO glad we're not in London! Terrifying!

Quite a few vendors are pulling out of deals and remarketing because prices are going up quite fast. We are buying a flat in London at the moment and the agent is really antsy to get the deal through for this same reason.

Have just been in sealed bids. Winner went more than 10% over asking. If you love it, chances are someone else will too so bid what it is worth to you.

My house was advertised offers in the region of 245k and had a number of offers between 250-260k. The 260k has won. I personally think it is crazy, but apparently there is massive shortage of houses coming on the market. It is zone 4 in SE London...

OP - I've been through it fairly recently in London. The exact process varied from property to property. With some it was opening offer, then best and final, with others they had a couple of rounds of bidding to knock the majority out before best and final. All were settled within about 4 days of the open house viewing. It's all very stressful I know, we lost out on a few!

Wow. Another person here glad I am not looking to live in London. Property is moving quickly up here (Midlands) but I've not heard of this kind of competition over properties.

As if London wasn't expensive enough!

Market may be mad but we've seen some
Signs of sanity. Nice but over priced properties are just sitting there and a house we liked has just had asking price cut due to lack of demand ... In fact another house we quite liked (but thougt expensive )also had asking price cut. So I'm encouraged by the few symptoms of reason!

She says as she prepares to offer full asking
Price on a house

Or employ a high risk strategy as our buyer did. Offer a silly, massive amount of money, relying on the fact the surveyor will dramatically reduce the asking price. Then reduce your offer to still very much above asking price relying on the fact that the seller will be so embroiled with their own purchase they won't tell you to do one.

The price we settled on was (coincidentally) exactly 10% above asking price.