Can't find a house to buy - anyone else?

[BenjiCat]

Has anyone else sold and also struggling to find a house to buy?

We're in a South West city and the housing market seems to be going insane. Our small mid terrace house sold in less than a week to a first time buyer for over asking price (and several offers) around a month ago. We've been proactively looking ever since with very few properties coming onto the market. We have made two good offers (one at asking and another over) and been unsuccessful with both properties due to more 'proceedable' buyers!

I naively thought we'd be in a good position with first time buyers (flexible timescales/living at home) and with a solid amount of equity ourselves. We're now beginning to panic a little that we're not going to be successful with securing anything...

What's it like where you are? Any similar stories where you have been successful in the end?!

@oohmama no not Bristol, down in Devon, but it sounds like it's the same where you are. I can't help but think it's lots of people relocating from up country /South East to cities down here now they're working from home and they're simply have much bigger budgets than us or able to go no chain 😔

@Knittingbaker

It is exactly the same where I am! I completed my sale earlier in the year and am living with family now so chain free but there just aren’t the houses coming on to the market for me to even look at! And the ones that are are being listed and selling at silly prices. The only house that I’ve loved in months is going to best and final offers and there are 10 people bidding! Honestly it’s just so depressing but I don’t know what’s going to change at the moment.

Does anyone know why there’s such a shortage of houses? Is it that everyone who was thinking about maybe selling did it last year? Or are people staying put because of the effects of covid?

I agreed It could be that people are staying put because of COVID. There's generally very few 'mid bracket' houses right now. Don't know whether to stretch our budget further, but we're not very comfortable with that and I don't even think that'll guarantee a place. Or as you say settling for something that isn't quite what you want, but to me that kinda defeats the point of moving...

Sounds a similar story up and down the country, for us we only marketed our property to pursue a house we liked as we knew ours would sell easily whilst supply in the bracket we were searching in was already very limited. We had offer accepted on the house we wanted in November making clear we were aiming for March which vendors (apparently) agreed with , marketed and sold ours in 24hours early December. Our sale has progressed to exchange but vendors haven’t even come close to progressing due to not finding anything so we’ve not even had a MOS . Anyway March deadline came and went, our buyers have been incredibly patient but will def pull out if this drags on beyond June. Thankfully a different property has come up, with compromises granted, but ticking our main boxes and after a tense best and final process hopefully we are back on track 🤞🏻Meanwhile original vendors on hearing this news have decided they are willing to rent after all so rest of chain can progress but trust has gone now and we are now excited and invested in the new house so it’s too little too late. All been a bit of a headache to say the least . Good luck to the rest of you in same situation. I think the stamp duty relief has somehow made the market far more stagnant yet strangely manic at the same time !

We have the same here (outskirts of London). We tried to move pre-COVID. We "sold" very quickly but couldn't find anything to buy. We are now trying to find a house to buy first but there is hardly anything around.

@FiloPasty I think you may be right about people waiting to see something they like before listing. But then because so many waiting to snap them up they go instantly.

Similar boat. We have to move for work. We are in the South East and moving an hour West. Ours sold within a week or so, but haven't seen anything we like other than one but when we phoned up the agent said they'd already had lots of offers already and that it was going to sealed bids! We are intending to rent for a bit as we don't think we'd make the stamp duty deadline anyway (the June one; the September one wouldn't make much difference to us) so makes sense to wait it out a bit and see what happens in the summer. It's no bad thing to be chain free too I guess!

It is a bit worrying that there's nothing coming up that we like though! We are also upsizing - we are looking for a 3/4 bedroom family home with a large garden that we can live in for at least the next 10 years, maybe more... So we don't want to buy just any old house for the sake of it. Stressful!

Best of look to everyone searching!

We are in the North West, sold ours in October and we are currently renting. It all seems to go to sealed bids at the moment and we are fed up of it. Tried to book a viewing last week and estate agent said it would be sealed bids four days later. We didn't bother looking, people are getting greedy.
Getting quite fed up as the rental we are in doesn't meet our needs but there was so little available we had no choice.

Yes the market is that the properties are booked out with a full day of viewings with the agent before they even go on Rightmove, and you're not allowed to view unless you are under offer.

My advice is to register with every agent that you can find and put your houses on the market :) then we all need to keep our fingers crossed.

Same here in the North East. We had viewings before ours went on the market and sold for over the asking price, could have gone for more but we're not greedy and the surveyor would probably have downvalued it anyway. I think what we got was fair. But in the area we want to be they go straightaway with bidding wars breaking out for each one. Our buyers are first time buyers both living with parents and they've said they're happy to wait, I guess we'll see whether they mean that! Worst case scenario we lose the sale and we stay in our current house for longer, I'm not prepared to compromise nor will I be drawn into going over our (healthy and reasonable) budget, it's easy to get sucked into the current property madness but I'm staying strong! Good luck everyone!

We had the same issue in North Herts. We live in a first buyer type home, which sell for approx 300ish and will eventually sell reasonably quickly even though there are lots of them, due to new FTBs coming to the area, often from London. But it’s hard to jump up a bracket.

Houses the next step up are in short supply. There are some new builds and townhouses for £450ish. Then nice older 3-beds that are extendable with big gardens are £450-600ish! It’s such a big jump for often no more rooms or maybe an extended downstairs.

We eventually found a v small detached house (515) but ONLY because our estate agent valued it and got us in to see it the same day before they were instructed. I realised that many houses never actually got to market. The FTB homes sell via Rightmove but then there are so many looking for the next step up they have to jump at whatever is there rather than genuinely get to ‘choose’. Must admit I was sad that there seemed to be ‘choice’ before we went on the market but after we sold we were scrabbling around for anything.

My theory is if you live in a nicer bigger house, the only things that tend to make you move are relocation or death/debt/divorce, so most people are sitting tight.

@FiloPasty

Do you think people aren't listing their own property because they see nothing they like online? so then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy?

This is what an agent said to me yesterday. He said that there is a real shortage of three bed houses on the market at the moment because of it; they're doing lots of valuations, but everyone is holding off going to market.

I would imagine that this is why pretty much every three-bed house advertised in my area (East) at the moment is actually a two bed. Genuine three-bed houses in this area are now way over what I can afford (downsizing due to widowhood).

I've seen four houses in the past two weeks listed as 'three bedroom'. In two of them the third bedroom was a small walk-in wardrobe, in the other two it was landing space. In all of them (including the ones I"be not viewed but can see online), you have to walk through bedrooms to get to other bedrooms, and there is no room to install a corridor or reconfigure. If you could afford to do that after paying the over-inflated price, of course.

In any case, I've got a buyer for my house and have made offers on three. I've been turned down for all of them so far as there have been bidding wars. I'd be a cash buyer and could complete out of the chain so I'm in a good position, but still can't compete.

We're the same. Ended up going into rented in June as our buyers were desperate to move in and we didn't want to loose them. Taken until now to even find a house worth viewing! Saw it and put and offer in on Saturday, hopefully will find out tomorrow 🤞

I'm in Scotland and the market here is crazy. Houses are coming on the market and are sold within days, for silly money over the Home Report value. We've lost out on 2 houses so far and are just about to try and offer on 2 more, with the hope of at least getting one of them. Its very frustrating 😑

I've been deliberately holding off because as with everyone else where I'm looking the market is quite hot. And yes, I do realise it's a bit self-fulfilling prophecy, but I have no desire to move into rented (as that market is hot too) to break any chain.

I've stopped looking on Rightmove now as it just seems pointless and wait until I'm in the position to go.

I think the only reason I've been able to find somewhere (also in a small SW city) is because the photos of the property were genuinely terrible, and evidently the vendors had a fair bit going on so hadn't been able to present it particularly well for viewings, which I think may have put off anyone who hadn't already been put off by the photos. It's also rather quirky in layout. Were it not for those things I'm sure someone else would have been in there before me! And the vendors now have to find somewhere themselves, so the whole rigmarole isn't yet complete...

But if all of you are waiting to find a house before putting yours on the market, you wont be able to offer on it. And it will be snapped up by someone else.
I have to move (new school 70 miles away). I am prepared to rent. If I was to hold out before selling (if I was still looking for a property), then I'd be in no position and in a chain and nightmare starts again.
I think people should be up front - either they will rent or remain. And I wouldn't be offering on a seller who isn't willing to rent next time.

I'm chain free and have a DIP and a budget of around £300k (also in a small SW city) but I'm holding tight for now - I'm in rented (which is completely insane here) so that's taken the pressure off but things are selling very quickly and going to best and final, unless there's some sort of issue. I don't want to buy at the top of the market but equally I have no plans to move again any time soon, so I'd be cushioned against a short-term fall in prices. It's so hard to know what to do - I could wait a year to see if things calm down after the stamp duty holiday ends, but by that point I could be paying even more if prices aren't going down. Oh for a crystal ball!

@Changingwiththetimes

I am third in the chain: bottom buying my buyer's house, them buying mine, I'm buying and my vendor is still looking. I was assured, before I spent £1000 on the survey, that my vendor would move into rental. The next day she said not! This is super frustrating, as we had initially all agreed to try and complete before the extended June stamp duty deadline. But if she does not move into rental, I will have to. Which obviously will cost. I am very annoyed at this but feel stuck. I do not understand why my vendor will not move. She is a single woman who is self employed and works from home. She says she needs to port her mortgage, but as she has to requalify, unless she is facing major penalties, then this shouldn't be an issue. I feel like I have been misled and it will cost me twice. I have also started looking on rightmove again as I figure soon I will be a cash buyer.

Your vendor shouldnt have said that to you in first place, however, I can understand her reluctance to move. We wanted to port mortgage but ended up in rental and the mortgage company only allowed 3 months in which to complete on another house. Pretty impossible even if we’d found one straight away! The redemption fee was £15k. (As it happens we were in a rental for 6 months before we found somewhere recently. Fingers crossed we exchange ok but vendors don’t want to complete before school year so won’t be able to get the 30 June stamp duty either)

Yep.

I'm in the highlands of Scotland and right now any property coming up is being bought by people from big cities who have decided over lockdown to move here or buy a holiday home they can retreat to during any future lockdowns and can bid far higher than any locals can. It's really frustrating! I'm pregnant and currently have a 1 bed flat and just can't get a family home. I know many people locally in similar positions and it's starting to build a lot of resentment.