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.

I think lots of inner London areas have cooled down. Of course lots of people have relocated over last 12 months out of London for more space. But London will be resilient; every year new people move to the city for all sorts of reasons and that won't change dramatically. London has been so busy, so popular and so expensive that it can easily absorb and arguably benefit from any drop in population.

You might want to report SD25's posts to get the link taken down OP.

@mocktail

You might want to report SD25's posts to get the link taken down OP.

Why? It's not the OPs house.

I'm not sure about whether the market is cooling down for prime London family houses. We're still seeing houses snapped up within a week or less round here (North London though) - our neighbours' 4 bed semi had 4 offers in 3 days, before even going up on rightmove, but it was priced very well. You don't have to go with the price that the estate agent recommends.

I sold in October last year in London suburbs so further out but then my house had a similar size garden and similar size, mine was on at £650k and I noticed that the ones staying on the market above that price were all the ones with small gardens or very overpriced. I got our price cut to £600k which EA thought was too low but it sold within a week and went through. A similar one across the road still hasn't sold and they are now at £575k, similar one up the road, sold at its £650k price but has fallen through twice and now sold again. I wonder if its not getting price through on surveys.

If you want to sell in near future I would try reducing price to a ma of £1 million, that takes you into a different Rightmove price bracket so will get new viewers. The exact price look at sold prices of similar in similar conditions - I priced ours so ours was slightly below others so became the most attractive price wise.

Also any unfinished DIY do. Try to view your house as if you were a buyer and look on Rightmove and think what would I buy, that's how I did our pricing. I read online before if a house hasn't sold within 2 months at a price it won't, sometimes the market can rise in that time and it does, but generally if a house hasn't sold for a while people start to wonder why and look for faults.

is it a'true' 4 bed or a 3 bed with converted attic?

double bedrooms? or pokey single?
rooms downstairs or all open plan?
i.e. would the house be interesting to the hmo market?

Without seeing it hard to say(appreciate link will be too outing) Usually there is something that stops buyers buying though . How is the garden,Kitchen and bathroom ? I think these are sticking points sometimes . Many buyers will not expect to do a lot/any work at that price though.Maybe have a declutter and swish some white paint on the walls? Try to go down a bit if you can ? say just under the mil? Sadly houses are only going to sell if someone wants them! Like you say Garages at back may be offputting as well

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor OP said the Deptford link wasn't hers, but SD25's was an East Dulwich house which may well be the OP's from everything she's said and she's not said it isn't hers. Wise to have link removed if it is.

@CloseYourEyesAndSee

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.

Blimey what a bitter post. It is not about what she needs, it’s about rhe current value of the property.

• is your house cluttered? - one of the most off putting things. Most people can’t visualise how big the space is etc with lots of stuff around
• if the house feels small and pokey, even if it’s got a good size, people will always prefer something that feels airy and spacious, even if it’s technically smaller.
• is the street really nice- that kind of money people want to be surrounded by nice houses, trees.
• are you near a council estate
• a lot of people have a mental cap of £1m
• do you mean you haven’t touched anything for 17years? - if people are willing to spend over £1m on a property, they do expect a bit of luxury or something that really catches their eye, speaks to them- beautiful wood floors, french windows, fireplace, period finishing etc
• are you near a busy road, noisy train tracks, ugly parade of shops
• does the house have a ‘smell’

-are the bins outside making it look messy

• floorboards are another big thing- if you have nice wooden floor this is a big advantage as I have seen. Cheap floorboards are off putting and people mentally are wanting to replace them, adding cost in their head.

-are we talking green, leafy, village feel corner of SE London, or an ‘up and coming’ area

These are some of the factors you need to count into pricing your house.

Oh forgot, are you in a chain, and if so are you willing to move out to a temporary accommodation if you get an offer

I think the market has slightly shifted not just because of affordability but people want more for their money.

Why are you moving for example?

We assumed we would stay where we were in SW London 2/3 borders & would end up in £££ terrace with no off street parking & small garden. However we are now going to move to outer zones & buy a much bigger home & garden that's far cheaper. We want more space & crucially with the way the economy is going I don't want all my money in the home.

Also anything we do buy now I don't want to buy top of the market as I think London is in for price stagnation

SD25 if it is that house there's no way I'd want to spend over £1m for it.

@ShingleBeach those roads are a particular bubble though - lots of those houses go for closer to £2m. East Dulwich (if that is where OP lives) will never approach those prices.

@ShingleBeach but even that one you listed as been reduced by 150k in 3 months

I think the problem with London or any other expensive areas is the FTBs are older & a lot are already stretched.
Historically many house moves were driven by equity but it's much harder to build that these days. I think where I am if you bought in 2015 you would sell for a similar prices when you factor in SD etc so it's been happening for a while.

If it’s the one I’ve found on rightmove (won’t link ofc, but fully matches your description) then I am very surprised how short the description is - maybe your EA can add more to this

Hi There
Sorry for the delayed reply - it's not the East Dulwich house either. I agree it is nice and looks like it could do with updating in some areas but it looks like it can easily be lived in.

The SE24 one is lovely. Thanks for putting it up because it does put these local prices into perspective. They are so out of touch with the rest of the country. SE24 is such an expensive area because it is near Charter Secondary School. That school adds hundreds of thousands onto property prices in the catchment.

I agree with others. I would either consider dropping the price again or redecorating/ de cluttering and having the photos redone. If you’re not getting people through the door then it’s either the price or the decor, and I do think that if people are paying that price most of them want a bit of a wow factor.

That SE24 house has similar problems though. The agent put it on at an inflated £1.6m in June. Terraced houses of that size have just never sold for that amount (though the larger terraces do). Together with the small shady NE garden it means that no-one has bought it. Hence even with the expensive looking kitchen and the more reasonable £1.45m price tag it still doesn't look cheap and hasn't gone under offer.

Things are slower in London now that the stamp duty holiday is over. People probably value gardens more than ever and if you allow an estate agent to market it at a record prices then it won't sell quickly.

Where in SE London are you? If you’re in ED or Dulwich village it sounds like it’s priced well. If it’s Catford or Penge then definitely not.

Yes, "SE London" is obviously a big area. But to the uninitiated it is very easy to spend £1m in lots of areas in SE London and people are realising gardens space and more suburban feel is better than being crammed in a more central area so it is only getting more popular.

Also the people with the 1m budgets are also likely to be able to remote work. I've lost so many neighbours & school friends over the pandemic as they are all going further out.