Anyone else struggling to sell in London?

[alixpb]

I have a 2 bed flat in a good area of North London, admittedly it is expensive at £850 but I've been on since last September and it hasn't sold. I have had two offers in that time, one for more than it is on for now (I ended up lowering the price in the end) and the other for the asking price but both fell through due to their sales falling through. I've also had another person interested but again have to wait for them to sell so nothing will probably happen.

I'm wondering though how people are finding the market as I am literally getting few to no viewings and I've only recently changed agent. A couple of my friends who are selling admittedly cheaper properties in other areas have had their property sold within weeks but I'm still sitting here.

I know it's not price as I have actually had the most interest when it was on at it's highest price (£60,000 more than it's on at now) and since dropping the price twice I've had little to no interest.

I'm just interested to know whether this market is really slow and whether other people are also struggling. I'm wondering whether I'm actually going to ever get to move. A similar flat has also come on recently at £200,000 more than mine so I know my pricing is OK but there just doesnt' seem to be many people looking.

I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences.

Its interesting about Nine Elms and off plan buying. The same thing happened at the Royal Arsenal development in Woolwich pre GFC. Lots of people (normal people mainly) lost a lot of money and in the end most of the housing was sold off as affordable housing. We brought there in 2013 and paid the same as the first owner paid 5 years earlier. The spec on the flat was terrible, much worse than you would normally get in affordable housing as the developer suddenly had a glut of 'luxury' flats which were no longer that so did the cheapest possible job to make some profit.

We brought in 2013 for 230£ and sold one year later for 350£ more. The same flat is now worth 450£ according to sold prices.

Well l for one am not going to buy. No way. Not with all the Brexit chaos to come. No one seems to have any view of it going anywhere but down. EU aren't going to be happy with anything other than punishing Britain to make it an example to the rest of the EU.

@nessus I didn't spot that! Hopefully they've done the loft extension of something to justify that increase!

ah garden, I am not the right person to ask about fixing - always variable! (not sure why)

Interesting that w midlands is seeing the same - so this is not an issue driven only by 'absolute prime' properties falling in london.
yet, prices are still very high in terms of income multiples - and I was reading today an article about large numbers of overseas buyers doing btl. Maybe that is now falling away?

I am also watching the prices falling as we speak, but yet nothing is selling; and theres less on the market. Which is making me think that the real price is actually even lower right now, and its being propped up by the sudden lack of properties to a certain extent

^this.

If you look at the latest national statistics, they are showing that prices increased annually up to April at the rate of 5.6% nationally and 4.7% in London. There was a jump of 1.6% in April.

So whereas I think overpriced properties will struggle to sell, some of the doom mongering on this thread appears to be misguided.

Baching...stats are all well and good but don't tell the picture of what it's like in the ground. Just try and sell a place in Chelsea at the moment. There are no buyers!

I agree with Norse...It’s sale prices that matter though...asking prices may be high but sale prices - and sale numbers - are down actually.

Prices are so high that they're not selling... like I said, there's about a quarter to a third of properties reduced and many properties getting taken off the market, then reappearing a few months later....

At least in prime central London and especially in N1, EC1, WC1...

Take a look at todays Bank of England minutes, with more inflation on the way rising interest rates this year in mine and many economists opinions is not near to certain. F***g bigger morgages next year, brilliant.

The London property market ....safety deposit boxes in the sky....investments, better than gold, hedge funds, (sssh money laundering)....We just wanted homes to live in.

Hi alixp

What have you decided? Reduce price? Take off market? We've unfortunately refused an offer just below asking price last summer. Put back on and had to reduce a further 15% by Easter. We've recently taken our place off the market....

Am reeling a bit as we were literally banking on that big equity in our property. (4 bed house zone 1). Out options are renting the property out (hassle?) or selling now at an even more reduced price but before the interest rate rise... Bit worried about rate rise now as the Bank of England seems to be changing tune...

Cut your losses & run

There was a thread on here the other day where a poster was furious and insulted by a below asking price offer, lots of people were boosting her outrage and telling her to wait and being very rude about 'cheeky' buyers putting offers in.

Those attitudes don't help, properties are sitting around for months or even years because owners have banked on getting a certain price.

We are just outside London and prices certainly seem to be stalling here, it's a popular area for people to make the move out of London with small children.

Toriali - I've decided to dorp the price and see if that does anything. Failing that, I will take it off the market and maybe relaunch it next year. I will leave it on throughout the summer though and see what happens.

Don't take it off the market. It's going to get a lot worse with a weak government, BREXIT and JC in the background ranting about seizing properties and maximum wages. Reduce your price enough to secure a sale.

We've unfortunately refused an offer just below asking price last summer. Put back on and had to reduce a further 15% by Easter. We've recently taken our place off the market....

We were on the other side of this as buyers. Found a great flat that was priced at a level that couldn't be justified last Sept. Made a high offer (we liked the flat) but below asking price, explaining that that was slightly more than Identical Flat Downstairs had sold for 12 months ago. Rejected. Went up slightly. Rejected. The flat has now been through three agents and is still for sale and for rent. I know from the Land Reg details that the owners are paying a mortgage for the empty flat, which they bought a decade ago for 35% of the price we offered.

I don't know your circumstances but why didn't you take the first offer?? Unless you bought very recently surely there is enough equity in there for you to move on to wherever you want?

(To clarify, the vendors had assumed a 10% rise since Brexit - wanted £650k for a two-bed flat in Zone 2 SE London.)

We subsequently bought a larger flat in a better location for rather less!

I blame the estate agents. They are not giving sellers the right advice.

I think op said they had had the flat for 20 years....a lot of equity at any price....

Why is it relevant how long someone has had a property? It doesn't impact upon the market value. Or is there a green eyed view that someone who has made a large 'profit' should be grateful for what they have achieved and be prepared to sell below current market value?

Houses that used to sell in 24 hours/end in bidding wars near us just aren't moving at the moment. I think Brexit has a lot to answer for, everyone is staying put who doesn't have to move and no-one knows what is going to happen in the next week, never mind longer term than that.