London flat not selling. Why? Why? Can you plz help me to understand.

[Mypizzicato]

My 3 bedroom flat is not selling. It has been on the market since a week before the 1st National lockdown in March.
Had a few viewings but not offer. Price was reduced twice since March.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/68930043#/

I think it's a nice flat in a great location. We also extended the lease till 2197
I know that London at the moment can be a difficult market but this would be still a nice flat when things would be back to normal.
Thanks for any suggestions

Not for any commute they won’t. The most expensive house in Fulwood, Sheffield S10 is £1.6 m for a 7 bed detached. Other large houses are £1.5m. Similar around Guildford would be nearly £1m more! Simply no comparison.

They might choose Sheffield with the Peak District on the doorstep than an area of London which has seen better days

If I had half a million and my goal was to live near the peak district I wouldn't choose Sheffield.

London has always seen better days and worse days, and in the vanishingly unlikely event that enough people move out (possibly to Sheffield) to make prices temporarily drop, there are plenty more people waiting to buy. I am grateful every day for the depressed prices of the early 90s!

My view overall is that whilst the flat is nice enough, there's nothing especially amazing about it...it's not spectacularly decorated, there's no unusual or amazing features or beautiful outdoor space...it's main selling feature is the location...and if you haven't been to Maida Vale, then you probably won't understand just how lovely it is. It's not just because it's London, it's because it's a really gorgeous part of London. I think though it's just a tough time to sell flats in London.

Open the curtains. Cheer up photo 7. Add photo of small bedroom.

Only 1 loo? That makes it unattractive for family or sharers.

The Peak District doesn’t have quick trains to London though. I just don’t think many people live in Sheffield when their main place of work is London. They certainly live in areas all around a London and home working will make a difference but, don’t forget, some people simply cannot do this. NHS workers, transport workers etc. There are millions who actually have to go to work in this country.

Our estate agent said they cant sell flats at the moment.

People want out of London and gardens.

I'm enjoying the bonkers side arguments on this thread.

I am in the process of buying a flat in London with a garden. My estate agent was saying the market is tough for flats in London without gardens as people working from home and in lockdown are anxious about being hemmed in and mortgage lenders have higher thresholds and are nervous about values falling. Thats a combination of the impact of covid and exit on the jobs market etc. So I think its a market trend.

Open the curtains, remove the balcony pic with the dead flowers (looks lovely in the first pic), paint the kitchen.

@ClaudiaWankleman

There's some pretty heavy lifting going on on this thread. Both from the posters claiming that everyone who owns a property in London is deluded and that living in Sheffield and commuting to London is preferable to living in Maida Vale, and from those people claiming that there is absolutely no life outside of Zone 2 and never will be.

Getting back to the OP...
I think you need to paint the kitchen cabinets, retake the balcony picture (I HATE the square netting that ex-council flats always have) and lead with the best picture of the interior. Save the picture of the block to relatively near the end (but not the last picture). Maybe book end the last three photos as balcony view, block and then balcony looking back into the flat, to give a sense of the space.

I've had life in zone 2, quality is much better outside. In lockdown it's certainly better. I wouldn't commute to London though, my commute is ten minutes through the countryside and I love it.

10 minutes through countryside isn’t a commute into London though. I’m 10 mins from two employment centres both through countryside. I’m 35 miles from central London though so surely it depends where your job is?

I think London flat prices are bound to fall and that can only be a good thing for London. If house prices had carried on climbing, every young person and every creative person would have been forced out to other cities. Many had already started moving out pre-Covid. London is at risk of becoming a dead, soulless place without them.

At the end of lockdown, we considered selling our flat and moving out to a village in the countryside. We could buy a large house for the price of our flat in Zone 2. And of course that's going to make a lot of sense for a lot of people. In many ways, it would make sense for us. But in the end, we decided to stay - not because we think our flat price will never drop, but because I've lived in London for almost twenty years - I'm a Londoner - this is my home. And that's why I'd be happy for prices to come down to ensure London is a place young people can afford to move to; that teachers and nursers can afford can afford to stay; where start up companies and pop up restaurant and art galleries might one day be able to open. Don't wish high house prices on London - they do more damage to this city than Covid could.

For the OP - you could look at The Modern House - they have some beautifully staged flats which are similar to yours.

Unfortunately its usually the price. For that price you can get younger and smarter flats. It's a great location but I thought location would win out when selling our last house but it did not. People expect alot for their money

This thread has gone a bit crazy, why can't we accept that people prefer to live in different areas? Im from the north west, moved to london, moved out and moved back as I prefer it here. Doesn't mean there is nothing to do in the north west, but just not enough things that I enjoyed. Yes I could buy a mansion in my hometown for the money I am going to spend buying a property in London but the local area doesn't interest me and my career would suffer.

OP are you able to delay selling for a while? You mention tenants are you happy for them to stay for at least another 6-12 months?

I do think prices will rise again soon, it's just that there is so much uncertainty at the moment. I know my workplace were originally talking about wfh more in the future but have now done a bit of a u-turn on that. I think that is the same for a few companies, I really hope people who have moved out dont find themselves priced out in the future (not being snide but this happened to me when I returned).

OP, based on how dated the flat looks, the LA block and how small the footprint is, it feels overpriced. Consider something like this to freshen up the kitchen for not a great deal of money: www.apartmenttherapy.com/400-dollar-green-white-kitchen-makeover-36772604

Some other thoughts:

Kitchen: Remove the frilly curtains; paint cabinets and replace handles (and perhaps tap) for something more design-led; replace the kitchen table and chairs with midcentury modern furniture (Amazon has Eames replicas for quite inexpensive prices)

Living Room: replace the light fitting; remove the curtains; consider repainting (although I suspect the colour will look a lot better without the curtains and with a better light fitting); swap the cushions for more stylish ones; declutter the shelves (remove the family photos that have been blurred and replace them with objects or books that would not need to be blurred)

Blue bedroom: Remove the pine dresser from the front of the shot; paint over the flowery wallpaper; dress the bed with large pillows so that the bedframe is not visible; remove the picture behind the bed; crisp white bedding with maybe a wool or fur throw for texture.

Other bedroom: Looks generally ok (although very small), would just remove the clutter around the side table

Bathroom: not much you can do without spending £££ but if you decide to re-decorate and re-take photos, maybe Aesop or other high-end hand soap and remove the random shampoos etc. from the picture

Balcony: As others have noted, the photos need to be consistent. The summer photo is gorgeous but expect you won't be able to recreate it for several months. If you will be re-taking the balcony photo, consider removing the table with lone plant pot on it and putting in some evergreen plants in the window boxes. Remove the winter photo from the listing.

Missing room: style this as an office if you can
Try to have one set of photos that clearly depict the same season -- these show a mix of summer and winter pictures, neither of which is the current season so makes me wonder just how old the photos are.

Generally, I think the flat needs to look a lot more aspirational for a young person to be interested, given Covid, financial crisis, Brexit and everything else that is going on. Brutalism is fashionable but your flat says ex-council rather than Barbican chic. If the flat projects the right lifestyle, it could still be attractive for a young buyer, despite all the changes to fundamentals.

Someone up-thread mentioned The Modern House as a source of inspiration -- that's a very good call as they feature several ex-LA flats that have been presented well.

See
www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/rowley-way-x/
www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/gilesmead/

In terms of price, could you afford to price it sub-£500k, even just below? It may result in the flat appearing on more searches.

I find it hard to believe that so many people are doing the drastic thing of moving away from their normal life based on what has happened this year. Do people feel that life has changed forever? I see this as a temporary situation, maybe I'm wrong.

@Himalayansalt People think wfh would stay as it does make more sense for a lot.of jobs. But the thing is by moving away from economic centres, you are still limiting your future pool of jobs which may be an issue if you lose your job. People don't usually plan for the worst case scenario!

@Himalayansalt

I find it hard to believe that so many people are doing the drastic thing of moving away from their normal life based on what has happened this year. Do people feel that life has changed forever? I see this as a temporary situation, maybe I'm wrong.

A lot of industries have changed permanently. Due to the ability of working remotely and still very effectively, a lot of people will not go back to the horrendous daily commutes or will only go back to partial, manageable ones, if that. A number of these jobs and industries were ready for this big change a long time ago but Covid has simply accelerated the transformation. Overall, this will be good because I really believe that making profit out of property market is not smartness or cleverness. It simply exaggerates the inequality. I am sorry for the people in OP’s situation. I will probably lose a big chunk of equity too but something has to give and this is probably a better long term outcome in a way.

Agh The Modern House are SO good at staging and taking photos!!

Making money to leave to dc absolutely makes sense if you can. It always did. We don’t all have to want or enjoy a socialist utopia where we have nothing to pass on or share with family. Some of us come from families who have striven to own property for generations. Others can strive for the same but I totally accept it’s difficult for some. Not everyone will achieve it, and, of course it’s more difficult now if you are not supported by family. Lots of people want better for their dc and try really hard to provide them with a leg up to buy a property. I’m not sorry I bought a house when I could and many who are twenty something now definitely had parents who could have bought property when the earnings/price ratio was a lot more favourable. Even nurses bought easily when I was younger! But it was choice. We don’t have any friends at all who didn’t buy a house. None. So they have equity to pass on.

Change cushions in living room
Open curtains
Add Flowers to kitchen table
Paint kitchen
Add Pictures / interior decor to bedrooms
Remove dead flowers balcony photo?!
Times are dire. Market is difficult in london. But people are sold on image. Improve the image of the place & it might just help.

My estate agent was saying the market is tough for flats in London without gardens as people working from home and in lockdown are anxious about being hemmed in and mortgage lenders have higher thresholds and are nervous about values falling.

Lenders are nervous about the value of flats in London falling? They haven’t built mumsnet’s London flat owners opinions into their algorithm then.

Did your agent mention the EWS1 certificate as a problem as well? For any flats in buildings over 3 storeys?

@TazMac the thing is that if you live in London, maida vale is one of those areas for the ultra rich. Think oligarch's daughter, french investment bankers. The average white male in the City earns £150k. For such people, they can afford pied a terre in London and a country house. We only think London house prices are expensive cos we are middle income/low income (and yes in London, anything below 100k isnt anything to shout out). But for the global rich, their incomes have only grown relative to outgoings so for them, property isn't really expensive at all. maida Vale does attract such a crowd.

I never even thought you can get any property. there for less than 800k. So OP's flat is cheap for the area as it is Ex LA.

Nice size flat - but it's a TINY shower room for that number of bedrooms!

It's expensive for one. If I was willing to drop half a million, I'd probably expect more space, and a nicer spec. Whoever is purchasing will need to replace the kitchen (circa 10k) as well as making it look a bit more modern/less tired etc. I also prefer smaller blocks of flats, but that's just me.