Anyone else frustrated with the housing market?

[Neron]

Desperate to move and just not much on to buy at all or those that are on, are not suitable. I just want to buy a house...I know it's first world problems. Last purchase fell apart at exchange and we've been struggling since

Frustrated with the slowness of conveyancing. You are only as fast as the slowest link in the chain and that's the cash buyer at the start. They and their solicitor have dragged the conveyancing out for six months since August 19 at great frustration to the three houses at the top of the chain. The earliest completion I see now is probably March. 8 months for conveying a house is simply unacceptable, it probably lies with too much regulation and the legal profession/ their client simply being too slow and not tackling the legal issues from the outset.

In the same boat here. Just put an offer on a house which is a project (not liveable in without significant renovation work). My offer is an average of three prices of identical houses recently sold on the same street. All three were in liveable condition at the time of sale so in a better state, really. My offer is 10% below the asking price and was rejected, despite the house being on the market for over 12 months. I increased the offer a little, we shall see... Not holding my breath, but increasing it any further is silly / impossible.

Some people are so unrealistic though. This one has been up for sale for the past year. It’s a McCarthy & Stone. Ok, it’s a very pleasant house on a pretty little development but they’re asking £550,000 when a new build four bedroom detached in this area is between £475,000 to £525,000. They’re asking over half a million for a two bedroom house with limited resale. There’s no way on earth they’ll get that asking price and I should think the agent is tearing his hair out with a vendor who won’t listen to reason.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-85611689.html

We viewed so many like that @Astrabees it got to a point we refused to see houses marketed by family when a relative passed. They would never budge on price, despite most houses having never been touched or updated when they were built in the 50s/60s which would cost a fair bit to bring them up to standard.

@Bigpaintinglittlepainting My good friend lives in Pennistone, Sheffield. It always used to be cheap (in comparison to my SE prices) but prices are rising due to people moving up from the south

@DesperateElf hopefully they are sense and you get the house

I know that area @AlexaAmbidextra and completely agree with you. I do have to question the EA though, I know a vendor can put it up for the figure they wish, but surely they would have got that price from somewhere. Either way, it's not going to sell for that price

Unfortunately it's the same in my area, 2 bed starter homes have gone up 60% in price since 2014 where owners have done nothing to them, it's just not a sustainable increase, something needs to happen to the housing crisis, it just gets worse and worse

How's everyone going ?
We still have no movement in the area.
Few coming on but not much selling and a few re appearing after sales obv fell through.
So fed up with it all !
Anyone sold or found anywhere yet ?

Still not many come out, Hopefully get more to the market when the weather gets warmer in March, April, May &June.

It is very frustrating to do the house search especially when money is ready.

Nothing's changed for me. My offer was rejected with a note that if I increase it a bit more it'll be accepted. I left the offer as it was at about 92% of the asking price and heard nothing since. Still convinced it was, and is, a good offer. No other offers from anyone else on this house and it has been on the market for over 12 months (wonder why).

Viewed another house and offered slightly over 90% of the asking price and that house went to someone else. Not sure what they offered. I assume it was a higher offer.

Viewing yet another house tomorrow and if we like it we'll offer 90% of the asking price. This one is the most expensive of all three and will stretch us to the absolute limit of our affordability at 90%, so we won't be able to negotiate after that.

We put in a low offer on somewhere, about 20% under asking price as it’s substantially overpriced compared to anything nearby and needs a lot of work. Their reply was that even if they hadn’t done any work it would have still increased by 30 odd percent in value since they bought it. What they bought it for is irrelevant to what it’s worth now in the local market though (we had it independently valued also)

I was away at Christmas and spoke to friends/family in conveyancing and personal finance and they said that people cant reduce the price on their (ridiculously overpriced) houses because they need the extra money to service or pay off debt accrued which is the highest it’s ever been. People have been remortgaging to pay for Uni/cars/holidays and are now trapped.

If Help to buy is abolished in the budget the market will drop significantly.
If the Government goes ahead with leaving the single market at the end of the year the market will drop.
If the government allows councils to build houses for the needs, the market will drop.
The market is massively over inflated at the moment but there is no heat in the economy to keep it that way.
Prices will fall, not fast but steadily.

We have sold many times in the UK with all the usual stresses and problems. We have sold once in Spain and it was so easy and stress free. On acceptance of offer and 2,000 euro deposit was put down (non returnable) which stops people making offers without thinking it through.

After that the solicitors do the usual searches and checks and when that it done and a completion date agreed, a 10% deposit is paid direct to the purchaser. If the purchaser pulls out the vendor keeps the 10%. If the vendor pulls out the 10% is returned to the purchaser PLUS another 10% from the vendor as compensation. Hardly any sales fall through. So much easier.

I do feel there needs to be some level of commitment at a much earlier stage in the UK.

I agree. It's not fun to be an FTB in a market like this but renting forever is also prohibitively expensive, so we'll keep looking.

@ListeningQuietly - I’d be surprised if they abolish those especially when they are basically propping up the market!

Same @DesperateElf

Has anyone else noticed that the best houses immediately appear online as ‘sold subject to contract?’ I never seem to see them in time.

Some do. One that we viewed went the next day after the only two viewings that happened - ours and one other viewing. Not convinced it was a good house for that asking price tbh, we went with a low offer.

One other house on our street that was just renovated and looked amazing went within days too. Again it was a great house in a sense that you could just bring your toothbrush and not worry about a single thing but it was sold at 15% more than average price on this street so not sure I feel that I missed out. It wasn't a bargain, quite the opposite.

DH and I are currently looking for our first house but are finding the prices horrendous. I started keeping an eye on prices in spring last year so had an idea of what we could get for our money. We've both had pay rises since so have more money to play with, but it seems like prices have gone up a lot since then (or sellers are deluded?) so even though we can borrow 60k more than we could a year ago, we can't get much more for our money.

It's very depressing. I honestly don't understand how prices/increases in value are set because they seem to rise way more quickly than we can keep up with. We're in the South East, by the way.

TaleOfTheContinents - we are buying too and I agree. I think the market is at the peak but so many houses are tangled in chains so people are asking unreasonable prices because they are hoping to move to something that is unreasonably priced too. Houses that my friends are selling are all on the market for over a year with chains collapsing, down valuations etc.

NightsOfCabiria also going back to the 'good houses disappear quickly' conversation, I sometimes wonder if that's an illusion too. The very first house we viewed on our street the day it went on the market, we were planning to put a low offer in, but we were told straight away but both the agency and actual owners not to bother as there's already an offer close to the asking price. The property was then marked as sold. 7 months later (SEVEN months!!!) it's back on the market today. So it may appear that good properties disappear but if they are overpriced then despite best intentions a lot of house purchases fall through. Every one in five houses are downvalued by lenders (which is the same as saying they are overpriced by sellers really) so that's one of the reasons.

Whereas a house in my street sold before the EA board even went up

Its silly really because a lot of houses are now owned mortgage free so sensible sellers can be flexible on prices
but sadly Government meddling in the market has inflated expectations.

DesperateElf interesting to hear that you've found the same in your part of the country. Being able to see sold prices in the area is also an eye-opener. How something on the same street with a similar size/layout went for 75k - 100k less 2 years ago is beyond me.

I suspect part of it is due to the renovations craze that is sweeping the country. People spend 50k extending their kitchen and believe that it ups the value of the house significantly, whereas I view the house and think a kitchen that's 20% bigger than the kitchen next door doesn't justify a huge difference in price.

My PIL just converted part of their garage into a playroom/extra bedroom. They spent 7k on the conversion but say now the house could be marketed as a 5 bedroom house (rather than 4 bedroom). I'm sure that would add at least 25k to the asking price even though they spent just 7k doing that. I'm a bit

Agreed to the poster before illustrating how people moving up north has inflated house prices, certainly here in York. Also people extending and wanting an extra 60k despite it being a small three bed semi. We are now looking at 4 beds, some are offered where the dining room has been turned into a bedroom. That’s not in my mind a four bed it’s a repurposed room.

There’s a lot of unrealistically priced houses, it’s frustrating!

How are you selling in this market?
I see a lot are struggling to buy, but I can't sell.
I'm moving within the same area, I had 3 valuations and went with the best EA taking advice on photos/floor plans from on here ( the others dont put any room sizes on floor plans or sq footage). Good description etc. Middle price valuation.
Im just so deflated sat on the market.
I've been watching the brave people put their houses on here and taking the advice.
In my defence not much is moving here. I've been watching the sold prices locally and what has sold. Seems the doer uppers are going the most. I can't compete with them as I'm fully renovated and unpack condition now.

Would a change in EA next month be a good move being spring so it's a new listing on RM Zoopla ?
Plus I'm on a large plot and when the flower beds are out it's such a pretty house a lot more photogenic and has so much kerb appeal.

But if I sold now I'd have nothing to really look at - so should I just wait it out ?

I'm new to selling as you can probably tell , and looks like I'm not very good at it either

I did reduce and got less viewings !

I'm downsizing so competing with ftb market. in recent weeks 3 houses/bungalowswhich looked very nice inside I phoned up to get a viewing on as soon as they appeared on rightmove went sstc the next day and my appointment was cancelled. Obviously I'm not considered an "elite" buyer. I agree about overpricing. The starter/small family/downsizer market is over crowded and overpriced.Tiny 2 bed bungalows that have had nothing done to them since they last sold 4 years ago are on at 100k more! My house is in a much better area than where I'm looking and in terms of sq footage these bungalows and 2up 2 down "cottages" are now more expensive per sq ft than my Victorian 4 bed semi with side return extension , 3 baths etc.

Everyone with a 2/3 bed bungalow to sell no matter what state or weird layout now wants to put it on at 425K and so 3 bed houses are 450+. However, none of them are shifting unless they are absolutely pristine at that price. The governments Help to Buy has just inflated prices, not really aided people. No houses being built around here, just endless blocks of flats with eye watering service charges that mostly end up as rentals or empty (with International investor owners). The shared ownership flats struggle too as they are hugely overpriced to start with.

Perhaps so many sales are falling through because the valuation survey comes back with a much lower figure and so the buyer can't get the mortgage they need.This happened my eldest but her DH's family were able to stump up the shortfall. I'm worried as I really need to move as my finances are shot to pieces (due to prolonged ill health/self employment and no cover) and I'll soon not be able to cover my huge mortgage as my savings are becoming depleted.

Also, pi**ed off with viewings of my house. I've had 4 cancel at short notice this week (one cancelled twice) after I'd cleaned, tidied, bought flowers, made sure everyone would be out of the house (not easy with 6 people living here, most YA), changed work appointments etc. The agent had an open day last weekend for our house, only been on the market 4 days and claimed 11 people came round, certainly there had been some people as beds and sofa etc had been sat on and a toilet used! My friend said people were talking about it at the school, most had viewed as they had always wanted to" get inside one of these houses".

Worried and I'm only at the start of the process.