Quick poll for you Londoners

[lettie9]

Could I please do a quick poll for Londoners who have recently bought a house for more than £1m. What was the asking price and what was the accepted offer?

I'm reading stats saying agents in my patch of London achieve on average 94-97% of asking, but then some of them are saying most places are going for asking or 'just' under (like £10k under £1.5m). Which is it?

We're interested in a house but the asking price seems ridiculous. But we want to sense check ourselves because there are others interested and we don't want to lose out.

Cheers!

We paid 3-4% under asking but it will depend on the area, how desirable the property is, etc. There’s no hard and fast rule.

We paid 2% under asking

Try looking at price per sq ft or per sq m to compare

My house (family 5 bed, SW Lon) sold for under 1% under asking (we negotiated a tiny bit as we found a tiny bit of damp and had our eye on somewhere already). If you’re relying on Zoopla do be aware that it can be really out of date as properties don’t appear for 6 months in which time a lot can change. Your best bet is to look at other things on the market but anecdotally I have heard that the market for good family homes is still strong.

Sold a house well over £1M - got asking price on first official day on the market.
Bought a house around the £2M mark for asking price. This had been on the market a month or so because it was OIRO but they were sitting on a number of offers. We were one of at least 2 offering asking price but one was a property developer.

In my view the closer to 2M, the smaller the market gets (obviously) but equally you have more leverage to negotiate if it needs substantial work - think rewiring, new roof, plumbing, before you consider extensions.

People around us seem to think nothing of asking for a reduction after the survey, if the survey finds something. It's a period home, the survey WILL find something or other. Is this normal practice or dick move? To us, it seems an awful thing to do, but maybe it's fair enough?

It is difficult to rely on % of asking price stats, as asking prices are set in different ways, by different people, with different motivations/objectives.

A couple of the best house purchases I've ever made I paid over asking price.

I've also seen houses where getting a 20% reduction would still have meant paying too much.

Base your decision on what other similar properties are fetching, not the % discount from list price.

We paid 4.5% under asking but definitely compare it to recently solds nearby. What someone got off percentage wise in say Highgate really isn’t relevant if you’re looking to buy in Wimbledon.

And on the subject of the survey, ours is period and the only significant thing the survey came up with was damp on a wall which was explained by an appliance leak that had been repaired but hadn’t fully dried out yet and we were sent proof of the repair etc by the sellers and were satisfied and did not ask for a reduction. If there was something very costly and unexpected e.g. the roof needed immediate replacement then a reduction would be expected unless it was being sold as a wreck.

The only price reduction I'd tolerate on the survey front is where it isn't obviously baked into the price.
For instance, if you're buying a fully renovated house and then find out the loft extension isn't approved and breaches fire regulations, then yes I'd either pull out or look for money off to resolve the issues.
If it's a case where the windows are rotten, the boiler is very old or the roof will need replacing soon, these things should be expected in an old house and should be priced into your offer in the first place.

I don’t really agree with the PP on survey reductions, especially at the moment where you get 15 mins to look around and can’t open any cupboards etc.
If the survey finds out there’s damp, rotting timbers, old boiler, electrics that need replacing, roof problems I’d be negotiating a price reduction unless it was listed as ‘in need of modernisation’ that’s partly why I always have a full survey, I want to know what needs work and how much it might cost me.
I can’t tell that in a house viewing I’m not a surveyor and being an old house shouldn’t mean it’s not been well maintained, if it’s been well maintained it shouldn’t have those type of problems.

Our house sold for 4% under asking, purchase at asking.

Im buying a house for £945k, asking was £950. We went to best and final but I'm sure if the other buyer wasn't there I could have got it for £930. But two other houses (one just over £1m, one under) that I was considering went within 2%. And estate agent says several on their books went 5% over asking. And this is in an area when over the last year quite a number of properties have sold between £850-950, so not really a shortage of inventory. The latest couple going up for sale have been £1.1m, so I'm glad I managed to nab one when I did as they are all similar terraced victorians so not a lot between them, and I think without the rent boom the natural prices would be £900-950k.

We wouldn’t have accepted a survey reduction apart from anything major like subsidence or the roof needing replaced because we knew that the house was done well (we did it ourselves). Paragraph if you’re buying a doer upper it might be different (unlikely though) but if what you’re looking for is a house in good condition I certainly wouldn’t bank on being able to reduce after survey, as many estate agents are very wise to people trying to get some money off for the sake of it and will advise the seller not to accept it. My experience at the moment OP is that it’s a bit of a crazy market so if you are determined to buy at the moment then I really do think you need to get yourself used to the idea that you will be paying asking price, or even over, for something decent.

We are buying on the edge of London - zone 6. We offered asking price. For ours we would accept a max 4-5% reduction.

The issue with the more expensive houses is that suddenly 5% is a 6 figure amount and you can do a lot with 6 figures!

Anyway it also depends on whether the asking price is realistic. I saw one house come on at 2m and thought it was probably worth around 1.6. It was reduced a few times and eventually to 1.7 when it sold so that’s effectively at least 15% off original asking.

Can anyone advise what happens during a full survey? Apparently takes a good few hours - are they moving furniture and lifting up tiles??

It's a period home, so I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of things to note, even if minor...?

Sold one 2020. Offers over asking and accepted 7% over. Same road this pattern has continued with three further sales going for over. Due in the main to scarcity of type of property in that very specific area. They’re hard to value for that reason.
Local to where I live - very central houses are in 6-7mill (not mine - I rent ffs) and I’m aware they are going for around 8-10%+ under. As a result I think of lack of significant outdoor space/wfh etc etc.

I'm in SW11 and a local agent (Movelli) put a booklet through the door recently which was a really detailed analysis of sold prices vs asking prices and price per sq ft split for flats vs houses and the various local micro areas
There have been some fluctuations over the last year, but generally things were going for 95% of asking price, and prices are still slightly below the 2017/2018 peak

Anecdotally from being a RightMove addict, good stuff sells instantly and usually over asking. Anything with an issue - small garden, dark garden, old kitchen, odd layout, yellow lines outside the house and therefore no parking, is taking a lot longer to sell and presumably has to take an offer to sell
So this averages out at places going for 95% of asking, but I would bet a fiver the reality is good stuff goes for 5% over, and the rest goes for 10% under

Gappy- I didn't think you could find out the actual sale price vs. asking on Rightmove, can you? Thought you had to wait for land registry and there's usually a delay.

I presume that’s what this agent is doing - tracking right move listings and cross referencing them with actual sold prices

It’s not on their website and I’ve thrown away the booklet but I’m sure they would send you one if you asked

If you look on the Movelli website, it’s the agent called Paul who covers Battersea, Clapham and Wandsworth

No your surveyor (full structural) will not lift up tiles, carpet etc. They may move furniture if it is blocking access to eaves cupboards or loft access. But if they are local they should know what signs to look for, and what the general neighborhood has experienced in terms of ground movement etc.