Feeling totally overwhelmed by the market

[fluffycupcakes]

Will it ever cool down? It's not even financially any more although we've certainly lost money between selling our house and now renting waiting to buy.

Every buyer out there seems to snap up a property before we can breath. I'm not comfortable putting an offer on the second a property reaches the market and yet if I don't it appears we won't ever be able to move. Just so depressed about it all. Any indications the market might slow down?
Sorry for such a depressing post but have people really benefitted from the stamp duty relief? We seem to now have to mortgage up on the extreme price increases instead of making any savings.

I think anyone buying now in this artificially inflated market is mad tbh
They will get repenting at leisure as a pp said
Its a bubble

Quite a lot in my area has been reduced in the last few days. There's still not much around and anything that is, is overpriced and in need of renovation and that's across all price brackets. Desperate to move but I think I'm coming to the sad conclusion that we might have to wait another year. Need to step away from Rightmove

There are definitely far fewer properties coming to the market I’m looking in, although to be honest even last year when there were lots of properties there were not many of the very best at all. There are actually quite a few ‘premium’ properties on the market now though, but they aren’t selling quickly. Probably because they are all just too expensive vs previous sales.

Having said that, none of them is the absolute perfect house for us so even if they were cheaper we probably wouldn’t dive in. We’ve been looking over a year now so happy to wait a little longer for something that ticks all the boxes :)

@Jenthefredo

I think anyone buying now in this artificially inflated market is mad tbh They will get repenting at leisure as a pp said Its a bubble

It's not necessarily 'mad' if you have a decent deposit (so fear of negative equity is minimised), can comfortably afford the repayments on your mortgage and are not intending to move again within say, 5-10 years.

I agree no one should be overstretching themselves, but buying is always better than renting in the long run, and there are people out there who have wasted decades and £1000s in rent waiting for previous bubbles to burst.

Honestly, I'd wait if you can.
The market is so over-heated. It won't last forever, especially when the furlough ends.
I've lived through 3 bubbles, and this has all the signs.

I've also lived through 3 housing bubbles and seen first hand the distress and life changing debt caused when the market adjusts/recession hits.

My concern particularly atm is the FOMO that seems to have taken hold of people. Yes, the pandemic has probably changed working patterns in some sectors for good and some families have realised that a garden/office space/spare room is actually a good thing to have but they are paying a hugely inflated price.

The stamp duty holiday has no doubt artificially buoyed up the housing market but it will end.

Where I live (midlands) ex council houses are being snapped up in days for >£200k

Its insane.

There are also lots of new builds but they don't seem to be selling as the only decently sized ones are >£450k

We bought our house in the post 2008 financial crisis housing price slump in 2011.

Apparently its now worth £130k more than we bought it for.

Madness.

Unsurprisingly, so many people suddenly found themselves “desperate to move” over the least year. The lockdown is ending, maybe for good, everyone will start enjoying the city again, leisure activities and holidays, the buying rush will pass.

Screenshot from Rightmove today.
Says it all really

@NotABeliever

Screenshot from Rightmove today. Says it all really

To be fair, this property is in a well located road very close to a main line station which gets you into London Bridge in 12 minutes. It also has beautiful Greenwich Park, the river and other transport links close by. There is also a well renowned primary school nearby. Still around £70K overpriced though in my opinion as it's small.

There are 2 bed terraces down the road from me which sold for 750+ in 2016 (zone 4). London prices have always been mad.

In the south townhouses have barely appreciated and are sat on the market lingering with no takers. No one is interested! Some are selling only 12K more than they purchased for years back and just stagnating. Looks like they may have to give them away or rent out.

Don’t know if it helps anyone but I spoke to my estate agent and it seems like the majority of chains are either stuck or houses are being revalued by surveyors which is causing problems.

She said that it is an inflated market and that it will all work out eventually as the market will turn again as it always does.

Apparently they have had to start talking to people about the reality of selling in this market ie you can get loads of money but can’t necessarily find another house to buy.

She said patience and not getting too stressed is the key here and don’t make any silly decisions for fear of missing out.

I was pretty surprised to hear this from an agent. She’s going to put the ball in our buyers court, but also tell them that they might not have it any easier going elsewhere. If they go they will hopefully find us someone else when we are ready.

It has really helped to hear that as I thought they would be joining in with the pressure.

Just got to let things pan out as they are going to pan out.

I check Rightmove daily and there are clear signs of a slow down in my area. New properties are not selling as quickly as a few weeks ago. We are looking to buy but there is literally nothing decent in our price range. I am so ready to move so really disappointed. Good luck to you all!

I check Rightmove daily and there are clear signs of a slow down in my area

It's the same where we are. The good properties still go quickly but anything overpriced or with issues is sticking. A few weeks ago it felt like literally anything would sell at any price.

I searched within 3 miles of our target area and got 95 properties. I then searched to include sstc within 14 days and got 105. The area spans an outer London section in zones 3/4/5. That's roughly 10% being snapped up which is a bit lukewarm tbh. I'm slightly more disheartened by the slow rate of good properties going on. There's nothing that gets my pulse up. More I have a perfunctory scan of the pics and floorplan to see if the accommodation could work for us.

So there is hope for me maybe if the market is slowing? Nothing is actually coming onto rightmove in my area. I now have rightmove on 'added 24hours' setting because anything is a waste of time. At least the searching is very easy

Our area is slowing too now. Properties are coming on and not going ... decent places that would have been snatched up before. Houses are being reduced. One I was watching was dropped by £50,000 yesterday.

I still think it needs to be dropped more though.

There is hope.

Alonim I'm seeing the same. Many lingering (never have had a price reduction - those are die hard investors that don't budge) looking to screw any gullible or desperate buyer. Then there are the are a few that increased their prices that have reduced them again (They still need to be reduced even more to at least their original level or less).

Buyers are getting a little exhausted I reckon. AE called to get me to see a house hitting the market - I just could not be bothered! They found somewhere to buy but agent reckons up in the chain seller needs to find somewhere - I said 'no point'.

I think the biggest issue now is 'no one is willing to break the chain and move out to sell'. So no one is interested in viewing their homes.

Nothing we like is coming on and I don’t know if our buyers will wait for us.

Nothing in my budget has come to market in the last week, so I've just gone down the route of posting a few notes in the area I'd like to move to. I only wrote to 5 specific houses outlining my situation, and provided my contact details if they want to discuss further. I've heard this approach has worked for people previously, so hoping I might get lucky!

Government is going to lift the advise to "work from home if you can" in June. Already the offices have started preparing for getting their workers back into office.
I guess once people are reminded of their commutes, the travel costs, entertainment costs, holidays etc...then the budget for houses and need for big gardens and offices will shrink.
I say that as someone looking to buy home myself but since my husband has been reminded that he is expected to be back in city at least 4 days a week, we are now taking a serious look at the commute timings for him and reviewing our buying criteria with distance from station more important now.
He is also less keen on a big home office space now. He probably wouldn't want to spend any time working from home, after a day's commute. We would love a big garden, but again with less time at home, gardening as a hobby wouldn't be as convenient.

So overall bit of a reality check dawning in as we get out of home more !

Well I’ve just been outbid by a full cash buyer on an £800,000 property. They had agreed £780,000 with me this morning, I only needed a small (10%) mortgage, but got full price all cash offer this afternoon. Back to Rightmove for me, but very little coming on.

We have seen a few older houses coming on the market this week in our area. Before then it was slim pickings. Hopefully it is slowing down a little but who knows? One house which had been on the market for a long time had gone to best and final offers last week so we couldn't even view it. Now it seems three buyers have dropped out and it's back on the market 🤷🏻‍♀️

@felicityelectricity we pulled out of a house purchase a few weeks back as the survey was so bad. It went back on and was under offer again within a couple of days. I will never look at houses like that in the same way again after our experience!