Please can someone tell me why my flat isn't selling?!

[Puffykins]

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-84873916.html

Price-wise, it's appropriate - even cheap - for the area. I know that it hasn't got it's own garden, but there is a huge communal garden which, in central-ish London, I'd argue is better than a tiny garden.

Admittedly I don't like the estate agents pictures much. It's really light in real life, but they always seem obsessed with turning on all the lights.

Anyway, any tips would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

I really like your style op but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, especially the bathroom. Could you just box up a few more books and frames and paint over the bathroom mural? Good luck.

Oh my god! The clutter! Why an earth have you got pictures propped up on your kids beds FGS! I think you might have got too used to it. I think the mural is quite sweet, but people who are prepared to pay that money for a brutalist flat want minimal modern insta-chic. If you really do want to sell it you need to hire some storage, take 90% of the stuff out and modernise the rest (new bed linen etc). You need to stop thinking of it as your home until you’ve sold it!

@FangsForTheMemory I gave the estate agent shots from the windows but he didn't use them. My children have had literally every single one of their birthday parties at the Playhut in the Meanwhile Gardens. I went into labour with DD there.

You can't see the canal but it's our school run - I literally walk down it every day.

Will def get some more outdoor shots....

oh ps for our estate agent photos, it all looked really clear and uncluttered, but that's because there were teetering piles of stuff just out of shot! Can you move stuff around? We piled stuff into the car, too.

you can see your daughter’s name above one of the beds, might want to remove/blur that.

Babar?

@TweeBree

you can see your daughter’s name above one of the beds, might want to remove/blur that.

Babar?

Actually lolled at this

I love you’re style. If I was looking around properties I would always overlook anyone’s taste and look at the building and position, but not everyone thinks that way.

@heronwatcher I know re the propped up paintings. It's my husband. He compulsively buys art and won't put it in storage. It's a disaster. To be honest a lot of it is mine but that's at least hanging on the walls....

I love your style - it feels really homely, but it needs to be more neutral. Ottoman beds hold a vast amount of stuff- tuck some of your books away.
Clear your kitchen worktops. Put stuff in cupboards, even if it doesn’t feel like it belongs there.
And the bathroom mural probably needs to go for now. DH can paint a new one in the new please once this is sold.
Good luck OP!

I really like your style and it seems a really good price for the area. The only reason I would be put off would be that you have some much stuff filling the space that I can’t see the state of the walls, floors, even the ceilings. i.e. the things that I’m actually spending my nearly half a million pounds on.

It looks like you love it a lot. Price is reasonable, if you have someone who can look beyond the mess/clutter/hoarding.

Unfortunately it also looks like it will cost a lot to get it to a standard that most people want to live at.

Except for the wooden floor everything else looks like it needs removing/renovating, and once all the stuff has been removed there will be marks and holes in the walls everywhere.

It looks loved and interesting but you have to depersonalise to sell.

I'm totally changing DDs name to Babar. I think she'll go for it.

I love it!

Don’t most people look past the decor if it’s not to their taste? Whenever I’ve looked for properties I always looked at the floor plan rather than the colour of the walls.

Gosh, I don't agree with people saying that you need to change the style of the decor. I love Brutalist architecture but the buyers won't be approaching it as if they're moving into the Barbican. Truth is, if you want a central London flat under £500,000 it's probably going to be ex social housing - you accept that and inside you do it up in your own style.

People do hate clutter, but I think your flat is absolutely beautiful and I stylish

OP if you just got a couple of Billy bookcases it looks like they'd hold your books. You don't have that many as far as I can see, but you don't seem to have many bookcases?

The art is too much. Get rid of 90% of it. Try and go for an elegant look. And repaint the bathroom in a neutral colour.

Like everyone else, I think it’s too cluttered and messy to appeal to a wide audience. You mention your partner is a set designer. What you want here is a redesigned set - most of the stuff goes off stage into the prop cupboard, you design something blander and simpler. Pics of the park, canal etc sound like good lifestyle selling points. Definitely communal garden pic. Good luck!

@scribblingpixie you are totally right on that - it's from having any real architectural significance. You can see Trellick from the window though. But with the lack of real brutalism comes a lack of associated general works bills, so that is good....

I really like it internally.

If I was looking, I’d be put off by the estate location and being next to the train tracks and Westway. Noise, pollution etc

I also think that if you’ve got a communal garden, then you should show it and decluttering would really make a difference.

We actually had a couple of Billy bookcases on the upstairs landing, but took them out because you had to walk sideways through the bedroom door and I thought that might not sell it. They held all the fiction though - which is all in storage.

@Puffykins where's the saddle?! I've looked everywhere for it...

On first viewing my only comments were that the towels got in the way in the bathroom shot and the balcony photo was grim. I didn’t register ‘clutter’ at all. It just looked normal to me.

Probably do need to clear stuff away a bit though just to show how much space there is. It’s a gorgeous flat full of character though.

@MidnightHangingTree by the front door.... you know, so I can saddle up and go quickly 🙃

Just to say I love your style OP!