First time buyers market - confused

[HDDD]

I am confused, very confused. I know all landlords are evil (according to MN and others) and renting is dead money and younger people looking to get on the property ladder are desperate for affordable flats, and not in high rises with as yet unresolved cladding issues. They are excluded from some new builds high rises that are offered only to cash BTL landlords. Others as they are offered to cash buyers only due to aforementioned cladding issues. So, when a lovely affordable safe flat in a lovely area comes up why are they not queuing up around the block? Last time I offered my flat for rent (a year ago) I had about 38 enquiries in 48 hours. It's now up for sale and no bites so far. I absolutely acknowledge I am an unrealistic seller and I am not posting here to do 'a here it is tell me what's wrong with it'. I'm questioning the market. Is it getting a mortgage? Something else I am missing?

I'm looking at lots of properties on-line at the moment as 3 young people in my family are looking to buy their first properties.
In truth, the amount you have to pay in service charges for some flats, is ridiculous. The cons of not having your own outside space, loom large, and then the costs of having to sell and buy to accommodate family in 3 years or so make it uneconomical to buy a flat - particularly a 1 bed.
I'd rather lend them the difference to be able to jump that stage and go to a small semi or a terraced house. They will save the monthly service charges and will save the costs of moving as and when they have a family.

The service charges on some flats are ridiculous, even without the fact that you presumably have no control over them rising over time.
Where I live, nice flats are no longer an affordable stepping stone for 5 or 6 years until you can afford a house. The differentiations aren't there.

The points about FTB being older and prehaps wanting more space are good ones, but I suspect it's driven by morgage availability.

As a FTB you can't get a flat on most 95% or 90% LTV mortgages anymore so as a FTB you'd need a 15% deposit. My hunch is that those FTB who have saved up such an amount would rather use it on a 95% ltv morgage for a house than a 85% ltv mortgage for a flat.

@NannyAndJohn

FTBs these days seem to want the world on a plate. They'd rather slum it in rented and save up for a few more years in order to afford a house instead of buying a flat. They're really fucking up the market for everyone else.

The actual fuck???

@Hijabihouse

The points about FTB being older and prehaps wanting more space are good ones, but I suspect it's driven by morgage availability.

As a FTB you can't get a flat on most 95% or 90% LTV mortgages anymore so as a FTB you'd need a 15% deposit. My hunch is that those FTB who have saved up such an amount would rather use it on a 95% ltv morgage for a house than a 85% ltv mortgage for a flat.

Yep - it's not easy to get mortgages on flats. I am buying a flat (FTB) and had to reject a really nice one with a garden as being above a shop I couldn't get a mortgage with my LTV.

@NannyAndJohn

FTBs these days seem to want the world on a plate. They'd rather slum it in rented and save up for a few more years in order to afford a house instead of buying a flat. They're really fucking up the market for everyone else.

Few people choose to stay in rented unless they can't get a mortgage or have to move around the country a lot, or similar, as rent is money down the drain when it comes to property, especially in a rising market. Staying in rented often costs so much that even keeping up with a deposit is difficult, never mind increasing it. Any property purchase is a big commitment, and flats have many more potential problems than houses, upkeep charges, you have more adjoining properties whose owners in future could be difficult, some of them could be renting with landlords who don't care how their tenants behave, and more recently things like cladding problems with some places are adding to people's doubts. A friend who bought a flat had appalling problems with a badly-behaved tenant above her; it undermined her health. Of course, you can get that in a semi or terrace, but in a flat you have more immediate neighbours, could easily be four lots, including directly above you in many cases, where noise problems can be worse. It is not up to FTB to buy what you think they should buy to help 'the market' if it is not in their interests to do so.