Selling in London at the moment

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Namechanged for this as it’s potentially identifiable.

DP and I have recently split up. It’s amicable but we are both keen to move on with our lives (no children). We own a nice Victorian terraced house in NE London (Leytonstone) that is in overall decent nick but needs a new kitchen and bathroom.

A quick look on rightmove suggests that very little around us is selling right now - that it’s been like that for months, and it seems unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. Loads of places listed last summer and yet still not shifting, even after multiple reductions. That said, many sellers seem to be living in a fantasy land and demanding ridiculous prices.

We’re going to wait until it’s clear what’s happening with Brexit (if that ever happens..) before putting the house on the market, but can anyone give me some reassurance - or a reality check - about the current situation for sellers in London? I dread the thought of us being stuck here in limbo.

Haha, no woodchip in sight here thankfully. You got a good deal by the sound of it - worth the pain of stripping the wallpaper!

We are selling in Bromley. No viewings at all. Our house is high spec and excellent condition. Reduced twice, still no viewings

OP have you done the research looking at the “sold houses” tab on RM? There should be enough info do you to get a ball park figure ahead of getting the agents in? Make sure that they can evidence their valuation with comparable as often they give you an unrealistic high valuation just to get your business and then ask you to drop it a few weeks after it has been on the market.

Is it obvious how to move the ground floor bathroom up and do you have any plans or quotes to show a prospective buyer?

Are you planning to buy something immediately (ie in a chain) or will you be chain free?

Haven't read other responses but we are selling a property in the same sort of area and had plenty of offers because we were realistic on price. We priced around 2016 prices - would have got 5-10% more a year or two ago but hey ho.

@TiddleTaddleTat That’s encouraging to hear. We definitely want to price it sensibly and encourage people to come and view - want to avoid @Riya001’s experience which must be soul destroying (I really hope your fortunes change imminently).

@another20 Yeah, we’ve looked at sold prices, but it’s difficult to know what we might be looking at now, as so few houses around us have sold in the last year, so we’re not really comparing like with like. The area we’re in is considerably cheaper and less popular than neighbouring areas, so venturing farther afield than the immediate 0.5mile radius is a bit like comparing apples and pears.

Slightly encouraged by today’s news - though I don’t want A50 extended for only 2 months. That’ll just extend the stagnation.

I work for Surveyors in SW London and despite finding customers are pickier and try to use anything we find to negotiate prices down, we are steady with jobs. people are a lot picker than they were before though and you'd need it to be pristine for it to sell quickly, unless there's something special about your exact location.

I'm in SE and we just accepted an offer on a Victorian property in a week. Although it was on before Christmas with another awful agent and although we had loads of interest didn't get an offer in 6 weeks. The buyers seemed to be messing around promising offers but nothing came of it (although I suspect this was the agents doing as we wanted to buy a property through them). Then went with a new agent after a Christmas and had 2 offers in a week.

The properties round here which seem to shift quickly are the ones where a bit of work needs doing. There are some bog standard properties which need completely gutting and they sell quickly.

OP honestly if you bought 5 years Go anywhere in London and you have added a bedroom I cannot see how you could possibly lose money... it is literally impossible. A lot of London postcodes have nearly doubled in that timeframe

We bought our house in Leytonstone in November - they'd had a buyer but it fell through. We made an offer within a week of it being back on the market, and had to pay asking price. Really wanted to live in the area but there were so few up that met our needs in the time we were looking.

Some people want a ready to move in, others a project. So I wouldn't worry about the kitchen and bathroom as long as you price accordingly. We saw some right states that were up for top end of our budget, and some gorgeous ones for the same price.

It was a few months ago now, but we attended so many highly-subscribed open houses.

Am in SE London so may be different, but have had our house valued by estate agents (wanted to know before committing to. New mortgage). Now ignoring their patter, message seemed to be that some houses are selling but they either need to be immaculate or unique in a way - people still have the money but it only sells at or close to asking if you have someone who falls for the lifestyle you've created. Sorry - may not be what you want to hear !

Cautiously returning to this thread with an update. We put our house on the market, at a sensible price, and it was under offer (at the asking price) within a fortnight. We had lots of interest and several offers in the end. Obviously it’s a long road ahead, so I’m not counting my chickens yet, but there are definitely buyers out there for sensibly-priced properties. The places that still aren’t shifting are the houses in our area that re just like ours but are priced £25-50k more.

SW London - good value properties are mostly selling, although noticeably more slowly than before. A few that are priced at more than what they would have fetched 3 years ago are sitting around. They sell fine at just a bit below that though.

However more expensive areas further towards the Thames than ours have had to go down from an average of a million plus for a three bed terrace (massively overpriced since they were selling for 300-400K not that long before!) to 8-900K. I think the areas with lots of overseas investors are suffering rather more.

We bought just after the peak and haggled but are so far relieved that things haven't crashed, so we should at least break even if we want to sell.

DragonTrainer when do you think the peak was in SW London? And do you think prices are now stable having taken a hit?

In our area things are selling slowly, ones with no work or complete developer territory are selling but ones inbetween are sticking with some on for a year. Some appear to be falling through too and some are way overpriced. There are a couple all done up and reasonably priced and still not shifting, well the one sold then returned to market after 5 months or so and the other has a new bathroom that's all brown.

We will go on market in couple of months but decided to get everything renovated that wasn't already to try and minimise the chance of being in limbo. Back up plan is to rent it out and solid rental territory.

@another20 - completely anecdotal, but probably around the end of 2016/beginning of 2017 in our area, a few months before in prime central London. Seems to have rippled out, but the more sensibly priced areas haven't felt it so badly as first time buyers are still buying in those areas.

I’m looking to buy in SE London and have been looking for the last 6 months so constantly on Rightmove. From what I’ve seen houses are definitely selling as long as they are sensibly priced. Those that aren’t have been getting reduced by 75k and then being sold.

Also looking to buy a 3 bed (& sell our one bed) in SE London @Ilovecats2. Finding it hard to find something to suit our needs and location preferences with our budget (460k).

Our place will hopefully be good FTB fodder. Only been in the market a few days as it stands.