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Original poster

Properties relisted at pre-COVID prices - are sellers in cuckoo land?

337 replies

househunter2020 · 19/05/2020 19:33

Started property search in February (London) and saw various properties quickly sold, obviously riding on post election bounce. We did not put in offer for any. Now we are seeing from this week properties that were sold get relisted at previous asking price (Jan/ Feb time). Are sellers in cuckoo land?

Just spoke to one agent about one relisting and asked if seller is reducing the price and was told oh that one was priced very well already and sold straight away last time it was listed, only now the buyer pulled out due to work problems... Of course it was February or a century ago...

I would expect about 5% reduction from previous listing. What do you think?

OP posts:
Fizzydrinks123 · 02/06/2020 14:47

or "when I were a child...."

frazzledfatty · 02/06/2020 14:50

Personally I think falls are likely simply because the normally optimistic BoE has predicted a drop.

frazzledfatty · 02/06/2020 14:53

@oliversmumarmy I guess it depends where you live & how affordable property actually is.

In my area of SW London prices have been stagnant for a long time, I think because affordability is stretched.

frazzledfatty · 02/06/2020 14:59

We were looking at moving up the ladder so a drop would actually help us. However in the current climate Im conscious of increasing our mortgages as who knows what's around the corner. DH is making noise about moving further out for the same price but I think we will stay put.

frazzledfatty · 02/06/2020 15:01

And just for those frustrated posters I understand you. If we weren't helped on the ladder in our early 20s by family we wouldn't have been able to buy where & what we did & would have been priced out.

Lightscribe · 02/06/2020 15:06

@Fizzydrinks123

It's no good linking to articles, economic analysis or any type of data suggesting house prices will fall on here, the delusion is stong.
Worst global recession/depression in 300 years - pah rubbish. House prices up to the moon with all the demand from people with no jobs and distressed bankrupt BTL investors.

I actually own my property, I know it will lose value and I don't care as its a paper loss. My investments in Gold/Silver/miners/BTC and other defensive investments will and have already offset that loss. Now averaging in cash savings into a stocks and shares global low fee passive tracker at post crash lows will provide much greater returns than property for the next decade.

@Rhodri
17 years? Obviously you forgot about 2008. Some areas haven't recovered since.

serenada · 02/06/2020 16:12

@Lightscribe

How much of a drop do you think in London, out of interest?

I think a drop will incur when the profit goes out of market as for many it is an investment, and as you say, those who treat it that way will move their assets to where it is profitable.

Lightscribe · 02/06/2020 16:43

@serenada

It depends. Luxury London new build flats will be unsellable, foreign investors supporting that market will have evaporated. Could see 40-50% declines there quite easily. (this will bring construction in the cities to a standstill with many sites mothballed)
Houses with gardens in leafy London suburbs less so, but a drop to pre-government prop intervention i.e. 2012 prices eventually so 20-30%. The peak for prime London property was in 2014.

Nationally the figure will be much less (due to some areas never recovering from 2008). Overall the BoE estimate of 16% seems accurate there.

Firstly though we'll have a flurry of backlog transactions that will skew statisics for the next few months. Drops like the above will become apparent going into next year.

This is all if we don't get more infection spikes and/or continued global economic turmoil. If that happens then all bets are off.

serenada · 02/06/2020 16:53

Thanks, I think 16% sounds reasonable. I think that wouldn’t do too much damage to the residential market.

onceuponatimer · 02/06/2020 16:56

I think there are some sellers sticking their hand in the sand about the state of the economy in another 6 months time.
There has been some pent up demand since lockdown eased in the housing sector so some sales will be going through without a reduction in price (lucky sellers) making the market appear buoyant still.
However, when furlough and mortgage holidays end, there will be more redundancies. There is also a significant chance of more peaks of infection in Autumn and Winter. I can't really see how prices won't fall. Plus there is the fact that even estate agents (who desperately want high prices) are predicting falls.

@Lightscribe- you speak very confidently about all of this. Do you work in finance or similar?

bubblev · 02/06/2020 17:11

I get confused by the widely held view of ever increasing house prices.
How does that work when wages have stagnated, there are not millions of jobs that pay 100k plus particularly for young people. FTBs are getting older, frequent moves are more expensive due to stamp duty & it's pretty difficult to gain equity like it was in the past. And this was the case before Covid.

Oliversmumsarmy · 02/06/2020 17:31

Iwalkinmyclothing

Hardly doing something that most people don’t do.

Dp worked in this City and I can’t think of anyone he worked with living in the city as it was so expensive.

Everyone lived in Didcot or Abingdon, Kidlington or even out as far as Banbury.

Lightscribe · 02/06/2020 17:53

@Lightscribe

No I don't work in finance. I do however have a keen interest in economics and financial cycles. I prepared and invested accordingly for 2000 and 2008 and I've preapred and invested once again for now.

I do not look at property values differently to any other assets, they go up as well as down, but ultimately up over time with inflation. I have no emotional attachment to their value (I live in mine so I don't care).

Sucessive government policies have skewed this somewhat especially during the last decade to cater for winning votes. They know it's the nation's obsession. A house is most likely the only thing that most will pay into in their lives (as savings and penions have been decimated) and a reversal of the narrative will cause anger and shock.

The forthcoming magitude of global economic repercussion however will outweigh any government abilty to install any last props in the system.

bubblev · 02/06/2020 18:30

Dp worked in this City and I can’t think of anyone he worked with living in the city as it was so expensive.

Which City? I don't have any neighbours in zone 2 who don't work in London

onceuponatimer · 02/06/2020 18:32

@lightscribe- I see, thanks.

Agree that successive governments policies have tried to prop up the housing market.

If you have any advice re investing in a stocks and shares ISA I would be very grateful as it's something I have been looking at now. Gold seems like a solid investment during a recession but I'm a bit confused by the range of ISAs and I don't know how much flexibility you have to choose stocks (with research obviously) or whether it is better to let a fund manager decide. I had a look at the money section but there doesn't seem to be so much traffic there.

crusheddaffodils · 02/06/2020 18:35

I think Oliversmumarmy is saying that everyone her DH worked with in Oxford lived in the more affordable neighbouring towns rather than the city.

bubblev · 02/06/2020 19:21

Ok sorry

Comefromaway · 02/06/2020 19:24

the house next door to me was put on sale on Friday. I thought it was a touch overpriced. Last night I noticed it was sold.

Oliversmumsarmy · 02/06/2020 20:17

frazzledfatty we are in the outer London suburbs of 4/5 bed detached with big gardens.

The ones I was looking at were a bit further out and a bit further into London.

No one is budging atm despite all the news to the contrary.

bubblev · 02/06/2020 20:26

My friends somehow moved during the pandemic (April), they got 12% off a house priced out 470k, I think it's zone 6

Fizzydrinks123 · 02/06/2020 20:31

Economic outlooks are for the future, therefore people not "budging" at the moment doesn't factor. The people that will set the prices are the people that will/do "budge" in the not too distant future.

My youngest dc (15) was just looking over my shoulder and said "the impact won' be seen until people return from furlough etc as none of the impact has happened yet".

I think that says it all really - nothing changes straight away, but over the longer term the question that even teenagers grasp is : will people feel more or less confident taking on larger debt towards the end of this year?

bubblev · 02/06/2020 20:41

If you go on Zoopla you can sort an area by most reduced. You can see when they were reduced & by how much. I can see loads within 5 miles of me that have been reduced in April/May.

serenada · 02/06/2020 21:31

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/51593087?search_identifier=66eee8fd8bd46345bf6e678d4931436c

1999 = £45,000

2019 = £425,000

Phenomenal. Imagine making that much profit on a one bed flat in Peckham.

Jo4Laurie · 02/06/2020 21:58

All I know is I offered on a 3 bed terrace (London zone 5) - offer accepted last week at about 4% of asking price and I was gazumped today! EA claims that there is not much available stock... I loved the house and am gutted. But not sure if I want to match the other offer and potentially overpay...