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??

wowfudge It is you who is giving incorrect advice to posters. The newspapers are now full of doom stories about the property market, but you are saying the news is wrong. You seem to be living in a delusional world where everything is pink fluffy unicorns and beds of roses.

And wowfudge, I see you did not answer my question about any connection to the property industry. Says everything really about why you are pumping out incorrect propaganda to posters.

You must be in a different part of the country wowfudge. If you want to sell round my way south east london. You will be accepting offers at 2015 prices

From the Telegraph article:
“Analysts have blamed Brexit for the slowdown in the UK's property market since 2016.”

Sure they do. Blame anything but the elephant in the room: Houses are generally too expensive. Fewer people can afford them. There isn’t an endless supply of money to throw at them. Occam’s razor.

MarkCarnage The downturn actually started before the referendum was even announced. It began in central London around 2015, and has gradually been spreading from there to the rest of the country. As you say, house prices have become unaffordable for most people and they are falling because people just cannot afford them.

Please stop with the personal attacks on me @FabulousSophie. I don't work in property. I am not spouting propaganda for anyone. You accused me of always being on the side of sellers earlier this week, which is patently untrue. Just because someone disagrees with your pov does not mean you have carte blanche to attack them.

I'm a pragmatist, not a fantasist. What is true in one area is necessarily replicated everywhere else.

Darn: not necessarily replicated, obviously.

London and the SE has been a bubble with regard to property prices for a long time.

wowfudge You are not just disagreeing with me, you are oddly claiming you know better than news in general. Heaven knows why you arrogantly claim to know that the news is wrong, and that you alone are right.

This is why your house is not selling, according to today's Financial Times:
UK housing market stuck in doldrums as prices stagnate

And according to PropertyWire:
UK property market remains subdued with sales down for 16 months in a row

And in today's Mirror:
House prices have fallen every day this year - where's getting cheaper fastest?
What more evidence do you need @wowfudge that the property market has started turning down, and it is gradually spreading everywhere?

Ignoring the spat going on between two posters (who it seems know each other from other threads) and focussing on what could be the issue, and what you can do:

1. The lease - not long enough, but fixable (albeit hassle and expenditure).

2. The price. Think about what you need in order to move to the sort of house you want next. If the issue is a generally falling market, then in principle, the type of house you've got your eye on should be open to hard negotiation as well. What matters is the gap between the two prices, not the prices in absolute terms. Once you've worked this out, decide what would be the absolute minimum you can afford to sell your house for, add 10% (to be negotiated down) and stick to it.

3. Ask if the estate agent is doing a good job. Perhaps get a friend to sign onto their books to act as "mystery shopper" and see how good a job the estate agent is doing of marketing it. (In my home town there are estate agents who're worth the commission, and estate agents I wouldn't touch with a barge pole - if you've unwittingly signed up to the latter, you may need to change agent).

4. My mum always used to joke "people think they're buying your furniture". I know all the property programmes recommend buyers "look past the furnishings/decor", which is of course what a buyer should do, but it remains the case that most people aren't actually capable of looking past the decor and imagining what it could be like. So if you have any really strong "marmite" items around the place (really busy rugs, shelves full of ornaments, deliberately clashing cushions, strong geometric designs) put them into storage for the time being. Paint feature walls a more neutral colour. That sort of thing. Sounds crap, and it is crap that you have to do it, but it could well do the trick. (My best friend has just sold her house, and she jokes that she thinks her buyer was in fact trying to buy her lifestyle...)

I agree with you @FermatsTheorem and was coming back to apologise that the OP's thread had been somewhat derailed.

wowfudge Please do not accuse me of derailing the thread when I am giving the real honest reason she cannot sell her house:
The real reason she cannot sell her house is because the housing market is awful right now!
This fact is all over the news today. Giving her sham reasons why she cannot sell is not going to help her.

I was not accusing anyone - I was apologising for my own role in the matter. Just leave it out.

EA could be failing to weed out time wasters so they can tell you you're getting lots of viewings and they are doing their job. Have a meeting with them to establish where you are in the marketing process. Their priorities may not be yours IYSWIM.

Maybe the OP's house is in the South West of England, where this news news is just in:

South West sees largest drop in house prices

I know MNers hate headlines like this, but sticking heads in the sand and denying the truth is not going to help the poor OP.

Have you made it obvious on the listing that it is part of estate? There are a lot of people that simply refuse to buy in one of those. Otherwise Co slider renting it out or lowering the price.

Fermatstheorem point 2 is the most important thing to remember

I think its the lease. Absolutely. Once the term left drops to below 80 years, it becomes significantly more expensive to extend it.

So, whoever buys it from you WILL have to extend the lease - either because they want to stay there and protect themselves from a big increase in 8 years' time, or because it really will be difficult to sell with only 3 or 4 years say beyond the 80 years. And you can't do it until you've owned it for 2 years - by which point theres only 86 years left.

Buyers therefore will be factoring in the cost (probably in excess of £10k) and hassle of doing that. You have to price it to account for the lease extension.

Lease would be a big problem to lots of people.

We had lots of viewings and no offers when we sold and I think it was because we were the 'comparison property'.

Do you think people are looking at yours in a way to make sure that they would prefer to spend their money on a one bed flat in a nice area rather than a bigger one in your area.