Plenty of viewings but no offers. Why?

[CaptainCaptain]

My house (in an outer London borough) has been on the market for about 5 weeks. In that time we’ve had plenty of viewings, on average 4 a week - 21 in total to date. But no offers.

The feedback is pretty consistent, they love the house but hate the area. Which is fair enough, it’s a council estate and there is no hiding it. The price very much reflects the area. A few people are concerned about the lease length; it is short at 88 years but not worryingly so.

I don’t know what to do really. I am looking into extending the lease but this is a long and expensive process. I can’t do anything about the area.

The price seems right, it’s by far the cheapest 3 bed in miles; it’s slightly below what the last 3 bed in the area sold for (very similar flat sold for £305k a few months ago, ours is listed at £300k). I am considering reducing the price but surely, after 22 viewings someone would’ve come in with a ‘cheeky offer’ if it was that simple??

My guess is "location, location, location". At 300K for a 3 bed in an outer London Borough, it must be a very rough estate indeed.

I'm not being snobby - last but one house I had was in a really rough bit of an inner city area up north - I had 3 sales fall through, a burglary during the course of sale attempt number 4 at which point I had to drop about 10% off the agreed price (we hadn't got as far as exchange of contracts) to get the sale to go through, a loss which has haunted me financially ever since in terms of where I am on the housing ladder. (It was, incidentally, burglary number 5 in the space of about a decade - that's the kind of area I was in. Everyone had bars on the windows.)

I think extending the lease is a good idea. People (if they've any sense) don't just think about whether the lease is long enough for them to live in, they think about what it will look like when they come to sell on - and ten, fifteen years knocked off the 88 year lease leaves them with somewhere looking very unattractive when they come to sell.

But sadly, you may just have to take the financial hit on the price. Commiserations, it's shit.

Hmmm. What is your building like? Is the hallway clean and well-kept? Any communal areas?

Just because it's a council estate shouldn't mean it's a no-no.

I think you should extend the lease as well.

It's a house @TopCait, not a flat.

It really isn’t a rough estate, just an ugly, concrete one. There hasn’t been any noticeable crime since I’ve lived here, no windows smashed, no particular problems. People round here are TERRIBLE for dropping rubbish but we have an amazing estate team who get it sorted very quickly, so it might look bad on a Sunday night say but by Monday lunch it’s sorted.

To clarify it’s a flat, with own front door, off a communal walkway. So no communal front door/windows or anything like that. The walkway is ugly concrete but it is kept clear and tidy.

I am making investigations into the lease. I just find it so odd that we have so many viewings at the current price.

A friend had a similar problem, and I think it was because the whole place smelled of smoke. She was a smoker so couldn't smell it herself!

Could it be that, or perhaps smelling of a dog?

(Sorry if that sounds rude! Just thinking of possibilities)

No pets, non smoking household. We paid a cleaning company to come and do a spring/deep clean before the first viewing (so over a month ago but have been keeping on top of day to day cleaning as well). I always take bins out and open windows before a viewing, just incase so don’t think it can be that

Great thinking though, I will consider more aspects like that. Thanks!

We are also in the catchment for an outstanding primary...

Namechanged there OP!

Pants. Thanks for pointing it out - I’ve reported myself. Luckily not a big deal, it was just a bit outing!

It's the lease without a doubt, I read somewhere that mortgage lenders these days tend to want to lease to have at least 70 years left at the end of the mortgage term so 95 at the point of purchase.

Well I look a tit! You stated it was a house OP. Sounds as though it's a combination of the area and the lease.

Sorry wowfudge. I did use both house and flat in my OP probably because I think of it as a house - we have our own front door, it’s on two floors and we have a garden. But we have another ‘house’ on top of us.

Link? Or more general area?
If the last flat sold recently for 305 then from what i am seeing in my area of south east london offers will be around 275. I think if people think its worth more than 10% off the asking price they just dont offer.
Your flat would have been snapped up by landlords with cheeky offers 2 years ago but notanymore.
Are there better properties for the same price

You could put some potted plants or window boxes and maybe a table & deck chairs outside to show it's full potential and give a more homely feel on arrival. A nice mat at the front door and a nice ornament/water feature at the door. You can put them out for photos and viewings. I have no idea about house prices so not sure if that is the reason. Has the estate agent asked for feedback on why they don't put in a bid or why they're not following up?

I would call your set up a maisonette. As others have said, it's a combination of location, lease and possibly that you have neighbours above you. Flats in SE London on estates are reducing to the £250K mark from what I can see and due to tax changes, landlords aren't snapping these up any longer.

The lease would bother me greatly. I wouldn’t want the hassle of sorting that out unless I was totally in love with your property and it sounds like that’s not the type of place it is.

The monthly RICS housing market survey released today says the market is currently very weak. That is really the only explanation you need as to why your house has not sold.

I think the price is probably too high-where I live in a nice part of ‘outer’ London 2 bed maisonettes with gardens and super long leases are going for £330k which is the same as 2 years ago-I assume you are attracting lots of first time buyers who may be shy of offering low and scared of the lease, lenders have rules on leases which I thought were at the 75 year mark but I may be wrong.
Have you looked at Nested? Not used it myself and it works out you will pay more in fees but I think could be a good solution for you as they will give you 95% if the value upfront whilst marketing your flat, if you use the money you pay 3.5% and if you sell through them it’s 2% which will probably be cheaper than extending the lease, and quicker

Befote anyone gets carried away and starts saying prices have dropped, etc, etc the RICS report also states that the average time to sell has increased from 16 to 18 weeks and house prices are still rising although the growth has slowed.

wowfudge are you connected to the property industry in any way? You seem to be its most ardent cheerleader, always ready with instant 'positive' counter arguments against any negative news; spinning and defending house prices to the death, even when the facts indicate otherwise. You seem desperate to pump out instant pro-property industry propaganda! Anyone would think it was your job to pump out pro-house price inflation propaganda!

We are in the same situation. I think the market just isn’t quite functioning properly with so much uncertainty. So only ‘perfect’ properties are selling. Ours has a strange layout and is close to the railway line. Both factored into price. But there is so much choice out there and so few buyers that the ones with compromises just aren’t selling. Is my theory anyway.....

Actually I just find your often ill-informed posts intensely irritating @FabulousSophie. You gave totally incorrect advice to a poster who was looking to port a mortgage recently and keep banging on about prices falling when actually they are not.

Right - got that off my chest.

Article in today's Telegraph:
Value of UK property market falls £26.9bn as house prices stagnate