Few viewings and no offers - it's the time of year, right?

[Amethyst24]

DP's flat has been on the market for a few weeks now with barely a sniff. It's a 1-bed in zone 3, in pretty good condition although it's been tenanted for a few years (tenants have now moved out). Was originally priced at offers over £250K but dropped now to £249.950. Seems on a par with others on the market in the area - competitive if anything.

So am I right in thinking that the market is just really slow at this time of year? We're considering giving the agents a week's notice in the hope that they'll make a massive effort in that time, then taking it off the market until the new year and getting valuations from other agents now we're not facing the issue of the stamp duty threshold.

Also wondered whether putting in a new kitchen might help (it's the only thing in the flat that is really dated). But then people would potentially be viewing it when there's work being done and it's a mess, and if the new kitchen wasn't to their taste it might put them off...

Any words of wisdom?

THE SEER

Twas a cold and frosty Christmas just before the crash
No more loonies to splash the banks cash
No more free rides for their pension
Interest rates up have had a mention
You can almost feel the tension
Every time the seer does mention
Lots of tension for the buy to fretters
Soon to get their letters
No longer could the young they fleece
Alas our countries economy goes the way of Greece
It has all happened before and many folk will end up with no front door
No homes for many that played by the book

Whilst savers got them off the hook
Alas the day of reckoning is near
Buy to fretters have plenty to fear

It is a bad time of year. But quite frankly house prices have gone crazy in a lot of areas. And the gap between anything better than you've already got is totally huge.

If you think it's bad now you are in for a rude awakening mid 2015

I think the kitchen is fine and doesnt need much spending on it. I'd get rid of the throw in the living room, hang the picture up in the bedroom, add some warmth with curtains at all windows & a rug in the bedroom, add some bits such as perfume bottles on the chest of drawers and lamps next to the bed.

It just looks cold and unloved.

Warm it up but don't spend too much (couple of hundred quid would be enough) then see if you need to think about price.

Agree with roneik it's over priced in a country where the you know what is about to hit the fan once the election is done and dusted. London is not immune in fact if you read a lot on economics and the markets it is quite the reverse

Looks like a fair price to me, I have several flats in London. Trust me it will be the time of year, luckily in London you will probably need to put up the price as come the Jan rush there will be many buyers.

I do think it could do with a bit of home touches. Doesn't need to cost much but I would recommend a trip to IKEA, spending 300ish on bits and bobs that will really make the property pop out and get people to view. So many people in London travel back abroad home for several weeks its ghost like.

Let me know how you get on hun

put up the price? hahaha

I've never heard of anyone in the last decade lowering the price on a London flat. The great thing about London there is so many jobs and everyone wants to move here. Trust me I've taken a property off the market only for 3 months later to list it at 10% more and get close to that.

twoopsie, hun, tell us about the £300 ikea investment. What colours should she buy, exactly what items? What would make it pop for all the people who work in London and fly elsewhere for Christmas? What ikea tat will fool london people into paying well over the odds for that flat? Thanks hun.
X

Nobody ever lowers the price on a london flat if there are plenty of vases with twigs in, eh?

Yes but the last ten years have been since banks were left unregulated. Things have changed ,and that is why we are where we are now. f@@king economy on it's arse. Being told by a bunch of eton halfwits that everything is booming. Graphs and phoney house price inflation, prostitutes and porn to increase GDP. are the economy crap.
You had it whilst it lasted , but it's over

riverland is there any need?

I'm a professional interia designer and don't give free advice on forums. Anyone with an eye for design can tell that flat just needs a few homely items.

So many people trying to talk down the market but it just won't happen, everything in the country is reliant on house prices so the government protects them at all costs. Last time they reduced the value of the pound by 30% to keep the market afloat, and they will probably keep doing that.

Oh and even drugs were included in the GDP figures, it is to try and reduce the debt to GDP ratios. That's what we have now,and you think it's going to continue whilst the interest on the deficit is now 1 billion per week eh!

Nobody here talking it down , just telling you how I see it.
There comes a point and we are there now when the government have to let go of their house market economy. If you take into account the white noise from them , that's what they are preparing the people for.

Roneik you sound very entitled, you just wish you could buy a flat in a fab area for half its current price.

twoopsie oh! You're a professional interia designa!

Free advice on forums, now that would be helpful of you, hun.
Still, we won't beg, but just leave it to your sense of charity at Christmas.

Sharing your gifts with the world is what Jesus would have wanted, you know.

Riverland there is a need . Prostitution drugs and porn have been added to the GDP government figures . The economy is broken. I didn't use a swear word just Fa@@ced and if you check the dictionary it's not a swear word. I will try to refrain from becoming incensed by posters who believe this will go on forever HPI

Twoppsee I own a house that I paid cash for quite a few years ago. I don't need or want more than one. What I don't want is for people to have to subsidize overstretched entitled landlords or speculators with low interest rates. I also want to see fairness in rent levels and standards. Not a bunch of greedy people gaining from misery and a broken economy

Already last week one of the bank of England interest rate setters has said "interest rates being this low are holding the economy back" he also went on to say the economy would have been much stronger if they had risen some time back, so twoopsie you are a bit muddled where matters of priorities for the government lay regarding the economy.

It's not all doom and gloom. DH just put his flat on the market in Mitcham - which had been totally trashed by the tenant who hadn't paid rent on it for over a year and took his eviction out on the flat before he vacated it - sold within 2 days at more than the asking price. Exchanged within a week and completes early January.

Much lower price bracket than yours OP, but there are buyers out there.

There will always be a few stragglers that are economically illiterate, and we will read their sob stories after the dust of the crash has settled. Headline news in the sun or sport " I woz robbed by the bailiffs and the banks mis selling . Compensation companies for the poor overstretched victims. I don't think so.

I claim my prize for post number 100

Looking on rightmove for what you get for your 250k in that postcode, most of the properties seem to have a lot more space - an extra bedroom or larger footprint, or completely done up.

For 250k, on paper, I think out of the twenty five properties I've found, around twenty offer more for your money than yours does - and a fair few for even less. I think it's overpriced, sorry.

Having said that, I know bollock all about the London property market!