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

[househunter2020]

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?

@Jo4Laurie gazumping is normal in london. i bought during the brexit negotiations when it wasn't clear whether we would crash out and I got gazumped (also got gazumped on another London flat 7 months earlier). I ended up paying £6k more than my initial offer which was accepted- £392k. This was on a 2 bed flat in zone 3. I think the EAs encourage gazumping!

In order to buy my present flat, i viewed over 100 properties in London and surrounding towns and offered on many. Most of my offers never got accepted.

But yet that price was 15% down from the high of £450k in 2015.

We sold at end of last year and moved in with family. Found a house at similar time that we really liked put in offers about 10% below asking and got rejected. We did counter off but wasn’t enough. It has been on market for 10 months and they did not reduce price. Today saw it was under offer so rang the estate agent who told me it was snapped up cash buyer asking price post lockdown. I was totally gutted as had hoped they would come back and accept our offer. Doesn’t look like that one is going to fall through though.

An old friend of mine just achieved asking price after a week on the market (Devon, near the sea). But she’s jittery. She’s convinced they’ll pull out. She’s not normally an anxious type either.

www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/03/prepare-for-1980s-level-unemployment-former-chancellors-warn

I don't get it, if unemployment is 12%, how are prices not going to drop?

Yes the resulting impact will take a while to filter through with job losses.

I think some prices will hold up in very short term as people that had decided to move at beginning of year get on with moving. After that the people that come to market will be with a view that prices will be impacted by events and their expectations and acceptance of lower offers will be the direction the market starts to take.

(Disclaimer: all those who say : I won't be selling for less than - you won't be the ones that set the market - it will the sellers that DO sell and accept lower offers).

It would be a mistake to see optimistic people bidding and achieving pre-Covid prices over the this summer as anything other than a hangover from January-March and then reality sets in towards end of year.

South Manchester. Lots of building work going on (as usual) remodelling & extending 3/4 bed, from1930s semis to WAG mansions. No obvious price drop trend as yet. Local estate agents frustrated because people want to move and they're inundated with enquiries. All the usual reasons - school catchments, DC growing up and needing space, extended family wanting to live together. My EA best mate says that it'll be carnage in their office when lockdown's lifted, but they're still selling. Apparently some people prefer that they can do the deal online and don't have to trek around looking at properties before the agent will pass on their offer to the vendor. Also, very few time wasters (aka 'Sunday Viewers', because they fancy a change from walking aimlessly around the Trafford Centre) so the whole process is less stressful. Who'd have thought it?

@onceuponatimeinsuburbia most people still have their jobs or are on furlough. Hence they can afford to move.

It would be a different story if 20% of people were unemployed. And the other 80% would be fearful of it happening to them and would want to stay put rather than upgrade or incur unnecessary expenses

Can I ask any of you what factors you look at?

Unemployment/Numbers in work - what percentage indicates a level that affects the market either way?

Inward/outward migration

Morale - support for government

What else? I’m trying to work out what factors I am missing?

bubblev

Only can see a couple of the places you listed but they were both well overpriced in the first place.

The flat in Putney was trying to get a River View price when it didn’t have a river view and if anything is still a little steep.

The one in Croydon was at least £50k over priced in the first place.

I have seen a lot of places that are in need of a lot of work yet are £100,000 + more than their immaculately presented neighbours who sold a few weeks before.

If the neighbour sold for £350,000 and the property that needs work has to be reduced from £475,000 to £325,000 does that mean that property prices have fallen 30% or does it mean that someone couldn’t see the mess they were living in and didn’t realise that you could see the sold prices in the road on the Internet

Unemployment might be 12% atm but it isn’t the reality of the situation when everything gets back to normal.

We are all (4 adult household) technically part of the 12%

However as soon as everything reopens we all have jobs that will start again.

We all know a lot of people in our position.

The problem occurs with those that had a sole employer who get made redundant and don’t return to work.

Only when those people are added and the ones like us are taken away will the true extent be known

But unlike other times, those that hold onto their jobs aren’t really going to fear losing work as there company/industry is likely to weather the storm

@Oliversmumsarmy how do you know when everything reopens?

Also even if a company manages to weather the storm, it doesn't mean that it wouldn't make some very unlucky people redundant.

Unemployment isn't 12% at the moment, at least not in anything that I have read. Those on furlough which may apply to @Oliversmumsarmy are not unemployed.

It is predicted that the current level of unemployment will rise significantly later in the year not fall and things aren't going to 'get back to normal'. A number of sectors will not recover for a very long time: hospitality, aviation, the arts, for example. I know a number of self employed people whose business take has been massively reduced due to this. They won't be included in unemloyment figures, obviously but their finances are undoubtedly affected.

I think when hospitality and events occur like they did pre lockdown

Agree there will be a few people who work for companies who have weathered the storm who will get made redundant but because they have come through this I would hope the company was in a position that it actually needed the staff rather than make a bunch of people redundant.

onceuponatimer

We are all claiming UC. Only Dd is under the SE furlough scheme so definitely part of the unemployed.

People we know are in exactly the same position.

@Oliversmumsarmy ha I knew someone would say they were overvalued, regardless they are still reduced & that was a snapshot, I can see loads of listing. Plus during a boom plenty of overpriced property sells.

@Oliversmumsarmy apologies but if my household was furloughed I would be terrified. How can you be so confident?

DH is busier than ever & doing lots of overtime but I'm still anxious. .My job is pretty secure.

I think when hospitality and events occur like they did pre lockdown

Surely that's going to take a long time & some business just don't have enough cash flow.

I admire the optimism of things "returning to normal". Hmm - the new normal will also take account people not trusting the future is as predictable as they once thought it was.

Confidence in markets is often made up of the "lucky" who've bought at the right times and think they have some insight.

Lots of others know being "lucky" was nothing other than riding a wave and accept the inevitable bad landing as also being out of their control and prepare accordingly/accept market has changed/adapt/reduce expectations and take comfort in the next step in the housing market is no longer £150,000 but only £50,000 gap.

@Fizzydrinks123 agree we were super lucky to buy just before it exploded & if we did decide to move the next rung is potentially a lot closer.

Interestingly I was talking to 2 neighbours today & both discussed leaving London, 1 to South coast & 1 back to Scotland.

I think buyers behaviour will change.

I can't imagine flats with no gardens being very popular at the moment.

bubblev

There is so much more out there that terrifies me. Money or the lack of is not one of them.

A few friends have lost close family and friends to this disease. Money can be replaced lives can’t.

My father in law died in April & I couldn't attend the funeral & support DH. My father is on the shielded list & incredibly vulnerable. I still worry about money & providing for my young dc. It's not mutually exclusive imo.

Market is driven by supply and demand.

lack of money is the most motivating worry for most people I'd say and agree with bubblev.

People with no money at all will not have time to worry about their health and will work/live in the most dangerous of situations; laws exist to try to prevent exploitation of those desperate people.

People will ignore their own health when it comes to providing money/food/shelter for their family when push comes to shove. That's why I believe it to be people's most motivating fear.

I think probably because I have had absolutely nothing it doesn’t scare me.

If you have nothing then the only way is up.