Anyone's houses NOT selling? SE London

[goodnotbad]

Hi All
Everything I read and hear seems to be about properties selling really fast and people having to over bid etc - well not in our case!

We've been on the market since late June (so out of reach for the SD holiday).
4 bedroom mid terrace.
Nice area of SE London.
Went up for £1,150,000
At our request reduced to £1.1M at the beginning of Sep

We have had approx 20 viewings but no offers - not even daft ones!

I believe it is overpriced just like the rest of the market which was artificially inflated due to the SD holiday.

Feedback we get is:
Garages at back putting people off - we've been here 17 years and never had a problem but they do look ugly and I can understand people worry about being burgled or the site being sold for development in the future (I wish someone would just build on it TBH.
Garden too small - pretty typical size for area but only 30ft.

We are really near lovely local primary schools, lots of parks and green spaces, lovely high street and the house has been extended with bi-folding doors in the kitchen.
We don't have a kitchen island.
It could be moved into but new owners would definitely want to redecorate to their taste and sort out squeaky floor boards etc. But nothing urgent.

I'm also wondering if the buyers in this price price bracket want something that needs absolutely nothing doing to it. We bought 17 years ago so not in this bracket all. The area has increased in value a lot since we have been here.

Just wondering if anyone else is having trouble selling in SE London as everything I read seems to be about houses selling within hours!!
Thanks for reading.

SE London. Two houses have gone up and sold in a week.

You must be overpriced. What are the comps like?

What does your listing say?

Have a close read of it, does it mention schools? Local park?
Have they taken decent photos? Have a look do the pictures look odd? Is there a lot of clutter? Could the paint need a refresh

To be honest if you sell to young families they don’t want the upheaval of redecorating!

Exactly how much redecorating would be required?

It'll be over priced if it's been on that long.

Bear in mind that with the current shortage of workmen and materials "fixer-uppers" will be much more challenging and expensive than they would have been a couple of years ago, so the price differential between something that's pristine and something which needs work should logically increase.

It’s a lot for a mid terrace. Must be over priced.

Not a lot for a 4 bed mid-terrace in a nice area, though you don't mention zone and public transport.

You bought 17 years ago so for a lot less than £1.1m. What are you looking to move on to? How much do you need to sell this house for I order to get what you need? Prices are inflated so I suggest you adjust your expectations, lower the price and accept that enormous house equity isn’t an entitlement.

It's overpriced - When did it last sell & how much for?

The answer is: if it's not selling it's overpriced, especially if everything else is selling within hours. How is your house prices relative to similar houses in the neighbourhood?

It's great that the house is near parks and schools but the SE isn't great for public transport for that money I'd want something super-special. The extension with bi-fold doors opening on to the garden is everywhere and will look dated in a few years so I wouldn't consider that a plus if I were a buyer. How many bathrooms does it have? If you are selling at that price you need at least two for a four-bedroom house. The garages in back and small garden would also put me off. And mid-terrace isn't anything particularly notable.

Sorry to be so negative but in your situation I would drop the price.

I’ve just looked on Rightmove out of curiosity putting in 4 bed terraced with garden in SE london and there are a LOT of properties under £500k which surprised me, apparently due to cross rail? Is that having any impact on your area?

You could post the listing here first feedback if you’re feeling brave but my guess is it’s overpriced. Given you’re in London 30ft is a really decent garden size and garages aren’t even close to being the worst thing you could be looking at. The cost of building work has just sky rocketed recently, especially in London. So the cost of updating yours is probably much more than you think hence overpriced.

OP are you brave enough to post a link? Without seeing the house, everyone will say overpriced as it's all we have to go on!

But it may be it needs a bit of sprucing up to meet the right market.

I’d agree that it’s likely overpriced if it’s been on for a long time, especially given the shortage of people/materials for renovation, which you suggest needs doing…

People expecting to profit a lot from houses is a controversial topic here. The best thing to do is going to be to find comparable properties and find what they sold for - not were listed for - and see how yours compares, realistically. It’s harder at the moment as the Land Registry data is behind, the stamp duty holiday will have affected some prices and no longer applies, and anything that requires redecoration/renovation will take longer and cost more due to shortages and Brexit etc.

How badly does it need renovating?

Badly maintained floorboards would be a big warning sign for us, although that might be based on particularly bad personal experiences! Some squeak every now and again would be normal but a constant squeak would make me worry about the quality of the floorboards. We viewed a house a while back that had some dodgy floorboards, and the man on the viewing after us put his foot through the floor. It ended up having a pretty bad moisture problem in the floorboards.

If you don’t want to post the link maybe PM a few and we can give feedback

Put the link here and people will be able to give you feedback

I just looked on Rightmove as I know SE London well, had such a nice trip down memory lane, houses are a good price ATM, wish I had a spare mil or so,there's some beautiful properties.

...

Drop the price again, OP

It's still too expensive probably by about £100k if you've not had any offers. Look at sold prices for nearby four beds.
Then compare:
Internal size
Garden (both size and direction)
Decor
Location - you mention primary schools but not public transport or secondary. People paying £50k stamp duty won't want to move for secondary.

The risk of development of the garages might also put some off.

I've been predicting a downturn in price for a while. Still it's anybodys guess. Now with so many folk wfh will London prices stay so far ahead of everywhere else.

Wow - thank you for all the quick replies. It is quite an experience posting on here.

I suppose what I was really wondering was whether London has cooled down a bit. Have others had their houses over priced?

For the record we do not feel that enormous house equity is an entitlement.
We had 4 local EAs value the house and did not go with the highest valuation.

We are Zone 2/ 3 but not a tube line so I know that reflects on the price - but again we had 4 EAs value it. Buses are OK into town and the overground is about a 15 min walk away.

However I totally agree on the over priced comments - completely. It is so bloody annoying that Estate agents do this. Such a bullish mentality.

It's not really a doer upper - just cosmetic to taste really.
2 bathrooms.
I did stacks of research before putting it up to sell and spent the best part of a year decluttering and we refreshed the paint work etc.
The pictures that the photographer took are nice.

It isn't the house in Deptford that Shirleyphallus posted but I agree that is an absolutely beautiful house with really contemporary looking decor.

Thanks for the comment about the floorboards TakeYourFinalPosition and I think we should get them sorted in a couple of places before trying to sell again if necessary. I did mention this to the EA but they said not to bother.

Thank you for the comment about the bifolds Alfonso - it is interesting and I value the honesty. Lots of people seem to be going for the crickle windows now I think.

We are near lots of primary schools and there are also really good secondary schools nearby too.

I won't post a link as I'll be outing myself and we live in a very close knit community.

Anyway - I think I should have titled my post 'Has the London house Market cooled down?'
Or - 'Has your house been overpriced?'

I just wish we could stay in the house as we love it and the area too but have to move for personal reasons.

Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone.