How much for my north London flat?

[northlondon1]

We bought our 3-bed flat, a Victorian conversion, in Archway in 2016 for £815k. I'm getting such different views from two estate agents as to how the local market for flats is doing, and how much our flat would fetch now. One is saying as low as £750k, the other £850k. It's a beautiful flat, spacious (1200 sq ft), terrace but no garden.

We're looking to sell to buy a bigger place. It feels like the market for terraced houses in the area is on the up, and quite significantly.

Would anyone in the local area, particularly any estate agents, care to comment?

I’m not in/from London but in my city flats have tanked - everyone wants somewhere with outdoor space.

Thank you for your reply. I do think it being London is relevant. The property market in zone 2 is mostly flats.

You can get a good estimate by checking the Land Registry Open Data online

You can search sold prices on here, its obviously ones that have completed and there's a slight delay before go on but if you search say for ones nearby selling in last year will give idea what selling for. Try Rightmove as well completed listings. www.gov.uk/search-house-prices

We recently sold a zone 5 house, garden size was a big factor there and estate agent said lots moving out of flats in London to look for houses there. With the houses only one I know has no garden and its not sold, small gardens sold if realistically priced sold, overpriced had to reduce, once or twice then sold or a few came off who didn't sell, good sized garden got snapped up very quickly and around asking price.

Rightmove will give an idea of what is still on and what has sold. Home.co.uk price history gives a price change history, sometimes misses those who took on and off market or who changed agent.

Try and find other three bed flats similar to yours within say a quarter of a mile, that are otm or have sold recently. Look at the photos and dimensions. Zoopla is your friend here. You can find the actual sold price within a few months.

You can also see all the properties that are under offer (even if not completed yet) on the selling sights like Right Move by ticking the "include sold and sstc" box.

When you say terrace but no garden, do you mean the flat has a roof terrace or balcony? Y DS is looking for a London flat and a roof terrace or big balcony would be enough for him.

Thanks everybody!

Might well pick up for you as people head back to the office and need to be central.

Rightmove has sold prices listed and you can search by postcode, geographical area or street. What is then useful is you can (mostly) then look at the pictures to get an idea of how that property compares to yours. We have a similar sized flat to yours (albeit with a garden) and it's actually quite hard to find comparible properties.

Having had a quick look on Rightmove there is not much on to compare. Though you need to look on the sold section as well. At a guess from looking I would suggest £850k is too high and I think I would be tempted to get in another 2 agents to see what they say.

Your problem is going to be lack of garden in a high(ish) end area and that you bought at the peak of the market which was high in 2015. Also that you haven't been there that long for market appreciation.
Also depends how large your terrace is. Some in Maida Vale for instance are bigger than a small courtyard garden.

Not much comes up for sale in our neighbourhood that's comparable to us, that's the problem. That was our problem when we were buying too - so little stock and we were keen to move, hence here we are. I was just so deflated when one agent said below what we paid.

I've heard people speculate that flats will go up in value again once people realise they need to go back into the office. I hope this works out to be the case.

My cousin is in a similar position to OP but zone 2 SW London. No garden, bought late 2015 & has resigned himself to selling below purchase price. Due to inheritance he can afford to take the hit.

I do think flat prices will recover but think it will take a long time. People will need to be in London again but a smaller number & probably not full time which means a longer commute for more/better space won't be such an issue.

Presumably you really don't have to move at the moment and it's more just something that you would like to do?

Yes I do think in general that flats (especially the more expensive ones) have dropped in value at the moment and are far more difficult to sell at present especially without a garden. Mainly all down to demand being lower than usual. But all things change and if you can just sit it out and ride out the market another year hopefully things will change. The only problem being that what you want to move to will also have increased price wise.

But you have been given two quite varying price points, unless of course the top one is with Foxtons! The 13% differential between the bottom and top is quite large between those two agents. Normally I would expect London Agents to be far closer in price points for a standard, non unique build and taking into account square footage etc.

When we sold we also looked at compare estate agent sites - not sure which we used it was free and just put compare estate agents into google. That gave how quickly they sold and how accurate their valuations were compared to price achieved though I presume it just includes ones sold.

Another thing we did was think if it were on at price estate agent said would we buy it or buy something else.

Though you need to decide if you are prepared to sell at a loss. I suspect the flat prices have fallen and the £750k maybe the more realistic one but if you don't want to sell at a loss and aren't bothered about moving maybe put on at £850k or £825k and see what interest you get. If you really need to sell its more difficult as overpricing can make properties very difficult to sell, you can reduce but if £750k is right and you start at £850k then that's at least two price cuts.

I think the big increase in values of gardens and decrease in commute factor will decrease as people return to work in London and lives change and will revert to more pre covid rates but if there's increased wfh long-term (not convinced there will be but its possible) it may revert somewhere inbetween.

Thank you all, really interesting reading. So we don't need to sell right now. We would move later this year, but spring is usually the time properties come on the market, so realistically we're looking at spring 2022. So much can change between now and then I realise. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the future, and was disappointed by what the estate agents said. The higher one is KFH actually, who we've met before and seem sensible. The lower is a local guy - very knowledgeable and has a good reputation, but has a much, much smaller pool.

How big is the terrace and what direction does it face?

Archway covers a multitude of streets, some better/quieter than others. How close to tube? What do you overlook? How near main roads?

Top flat above us in stroud green, three beds and terrace sold for asking price of £850 ish but it’s a very quiet road, backing onto parkland walk and in catchment for ‘good’ primaries.

Who is buying a flat without a garden for £850k. If you are a young professional you will be central. If you have a family you will just buy a house in the suburbs with a garden. I would say £700k for a flat without a garden tops.

a good size terrace does matter - big difference from 'no outside space'. Assuming it's a good size obvs (over flat roof I'm guessing?).
But 850 is steep. I wouldnt care what the agent's pool is, it's all online, he may be actually realistic. You could always put it up for c 830K and see what happens, can always reduce of course.

Depend sa a lot also on what the neighbours are like / are they above you an noisy - people will pay premium for well-insuulated flats or those where neighbour overlap is minimal.

Archway is great though - you aer in the centre by tube in no time.

Archway is a dive isn’t it. Not sure why you would argue against that.

As far as we can see (not giving too much away), flats in London have stalled, or even fallen over the last couple of years (Brexit, and now lockdown), whereas houses just outside London are selling in weeks, if not days.

Do you have a parking space?

It's in the Shakespeares, for those who know Archway. It's a conservation area. 8 mins walk to tube. Good primary nearby. Very quiet road.

Err thanks Terry for the Archway diss!

Archway is such a varied area with very diverse housing stock that I doubt anyone here can tell you.

It’s worth what the market will pay, so you might have to put it on the market to test that. If the higher valuation came from Foxton’s ime I would discount it.

Also, get another agent it, £100k difference in the valuation is a lot.

Sorry to answer some questions - terrace is maybe 3x5m. We are first and second floors, so no-one above us. Neighbours all civilised. No reserved parking or parking bay, but parking not an issue.