Are any other second time buyers struggling to find somewhere (east london)

[Linny88]

We’ve been looking to buy a 3/4 bed house in e10/e11 for months and have now lost out four times to cash buyers who have gone over the asking price (every time it has been a young family where their parents have bought them a house for anything between 750-850k in cash). We’re prepared to sell our flat and stay with family to be chain free, but what worries us is that we’re not even losing out to first time buyers anymore. Just wondering if anybody else is having these issues in this area? Agents keep saying we’re unlucky and that we have a good budget and should find something great, but I just can’t see that happening. Prices have also gone up like 50k since September and I can’t see it calming down anytime soon.

How long has it taken other people to find somewhere in east london? And is it a cash buyers market at the moment?

Do you mean cash buyer or chain free? I definitely think it’s a tough time to buy right now - the SDLT holiday is nearly up and people are worried prices will dip after that, so may be keen to sell to a less complicated buyer. If I were you, I’d sell your flat ASAP and then wait it out for a few months to see what’s available then. With so much uncertainty/Brexit / lockdown, I can’t see that many people listing.

That said, you have a v healthy budget for the area, so I’m sure you’ll find something lovely soon. Maybe extend your search to E17 - outside the village £800k will buy you a lot.

I think cash buyers have been swooping in to take advantage of the Stamp Duty holiday, and things will now calm down.

Wait and see what comes on the market n the next few weeks.

Hi, yes they’re cash buyers and chain free. I’ve just never heard of so many parents buying their children houses for 800k in Leyton of all places and wondered if other people have come up against an influx of cash buyers....the agents have all said they don’t usually hear of these types of cash buyers, but we’ve now been up against 4. Like I said we are prepared to break our chain....my worry is that even if we break it we can’t compete with cash buyers and then we could be staying with family for a long time.

I think you’re right about Walthamstow - definitely a lot more properties being put up there. We looked at Leyton over Walthamstow because it was closer to work and was cheaper than e17, crazy how it’s now flipped and seems better value over there!

Not in London, but another property hotspot - and yes, had the same problem - lost out on 3 houses, despite having made good offers.

We also decided to break the chain - partly to improve our chances, partly for our buyers benefit. And the way we eventually secured somewhere was by viewing it literally a few hours of the listing going up and making an offer immediately after the viewing - above asking price, but on the condition they withdrew the property from the market that day!

That’s really useful to know - thanks for the tip. One of the places we lost out to actually went to buyers whose own flat wasn’t even under offer but they knocked on the door, offered well over the asking price and struck up a deal with the sellers, so I guess we might need to employ more of those tactics.

Yeah - we cottoned on the hard way too. there was one place that we didn't even manage to view, despite booking a viewing as soon as we saw the listing - got a phone call a few hours later saying that it had already sold! So we figured we needed to be even quicker off the mark - but then we got, "Well it's a good offer, but they want to wait and see what other interest they get". So we figured we needed to not only be fast, but make an offer that was too good to pass up. And it worked (finally!)

Is that the EA thread? The mini boom is long over in North London, people are completing on agreed transactions but many properties left on the market are reduced or simply pulled out (may well be that they sold, but agent is usually quick to put a Sold STC on the ad when this is the case so would assume it got no interest at the wanted price).

So interesting what you’re saying about North London being totally different @Paulina23 - what area are you in?

I’m in E11 - my house is under offer and I’m in the same position OP. It’s been a few months for you - just wondering how things turned out for you?

I’ve lost count of the number of houses we’ve lost to chain free and cash buyers since we got our offer. It’s not just the 800k mark either... we lost out on one this week to a cash buyer at over 1.2m. Don’t think that would be parents buying for their kids but still - I’m starting to feel like no one except us is in a chain!

@Linny88 would love to know how it turned out for you!

I found it a sellers market when looking in sw London a couple months ago. My vendor has yet to find a place just outside - according to the EA she has tried offers on a few but missing out. My take on this is she either needs to up her budget and offer more or look at cheaper houses. I've never not bought a house I've offered on except when seller has pulled out or I was once gazumped (though the sale eventually fell through and they came back to me - already committed elsewhere but I was still kinda happy they lost out on both buyers).

It’s a mixed bag for the last quarter. I suspect houses tend to be a bit pricier around Barnet than east London hence maybe the difference in buyer frenzy. It is still hot for property priced on the lower end (900-1m), but also, and that is quite specific to this lockdown, for fully refurbished properties, basically ready to move in. I guess the wave of buyers as a result of lockdown fatigue are less prone to project or mid-term efforts to get the house in good shape, they want to move in ASAP and enjoy their garden and home office within months rather than wait for 12 months with builders around. I suspect we ll see a different trend once the stamp duty finishes and situation normalise. Given how long ahead pubs and holidays have been booked up, not sure buying a house this summer will be in many people’s mind.

@Changingwiththetimes That could be your vendor’s problem. Here though I don’t think that’s the issue - if you’re in a chain, you’re in a chain and your sale will take longer, no two ways about it, and because of the SD holiday coming to an end speed is more important than ever. Until now I, like you, had never failed to secure a house I’d offered on (this is my 4th purchase) even in the very competitive market I live in now, but this time around it’s different. We’ve had friends offer 100k over asking on houses and lose out. We offered on a complete doer upper last week and we were competing with 11 other offers all from proceedable buyers, many of whom had cash or were chain free. There are so many people wanting to move and not enough places for them to move to - everyone is competing for the same type of house, whilst at the same time houses with no gardens etc are being reduced having had very little interest. It’s tough out there!

@Jennydot

So interesting what you’re saying about North London being totally different *@Paulina23* - what area are you in?

I’m in E11 - my house is under offer and I’m in the same position OP. It’s been a few months for you - just wondering how things turned out for you?

I’ve lost count of the number of houses we’ve lost to chain free and cash buyers since we got our offer. It’s not just the 800k mark either... we lost out on one this week to a cash buyer at over 1.2m. Don’t think that would be parents buying for their kids but still - I’m starting to feel like no one except us is in a chain!

@Linny88 would love to know how it turned out for you!

We’ve managed to find somewhere and are waiting to exchange any day now....but it’s an ex local, place in Hackney. We gave up on E10 and E11, however, we did notice the market calmed down a bit in Jan and a few places we previously lost out on came back to us (but by that point we were proceeding with our current purchase). We also found out that that two places we were previously told went to cash buyers didn’t at all - they went for a similar price to what we offered to couples who were also selling with the same estate agents....even the EA we are buying through had one agent telling us a load of lies to try and make us up our offer.

Hope you manage to find something! It does sound like lots of sales are falling through, so something might come back to you

Is that the EA thread?

I was wondering this. I know two people who have sold flats and bought houses in Leytonstone and the bit of Leyton that is almost Stratford no problem. There was plenty of choice (although most properties a bit scruffy and land searches took aged). Definitely no influx of wealthy trustifarians desperate to move to either area .

@Lenny86 very interesting!! Yes I suppose they might well make up a “cash buyer” thing either to make you up an offer or just to soften the blow of not getting a house.

Having said that, some agents have started posting “chain free buyers only please” on their adverts for houses - yes, that is how picky they can afford to be at the moment in the areas we’re looking in.

We’ve seen loads come back on already so fingers crossed you’re right! I’m sure lots are going to fall through in the next few weeks as the end of June looms.

Good luck and congratulations on your new home!

We completed last month, chain-free with a sizeable deposit, but we did have to compete with more cash buyers than I would have expected. SW London though.