Flat not selling

[Ham94]

Hi all,
I’m trying to sell my flat. We’ve been on the market for 4 months and only had 3 viewings! Any advice or feedback on our ad?
High Street, Walton-On-Thames, KT12
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110512439

@Glassofshloer

It’s immaculate and I love the sofas.

I don’t know anything about the area, assuming it’s quite upmarket, but the rooms are quite small & I can’t see where you keep your ‘stuff’ - clothes, shoes, coats, books etc. Where do you keep it all out of interest??

Thank you! They’re from Next and very comfy!

It is quite an expensive town in Surrey - houses on the estate over the road are £4-5m

Good question! There’s a large mirrored built-in wardrobe in the bedroom and a big cupboard in the living room. We then we have hooks on the back of the doors for jackets. Also a king size ottoman bed which stores a tonne of stuff! Finally, there is a downstairs storage room and a private locker. I don’t think the agent did a good job of demonstrating the storage!

@Ham94 Re the fees I was initially going to add in my previous comment that the service charges for your flat are pretty low! Just adding a London/SE perspective. I wish my service charge was that much! Mine is hundreds per month.

This flat is nicely presented, looks more homely than yours www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/114492629#/media?channel=RES_BUY&id=media3&ref=photoCollage.

Oh! In that case, definitely get some photos taken of the storage - the downstairs storage room and wardrobe at least. And maybe a little price drop to shunt it into the next bracket. Good luck

[quote rosesarered321]This flat is nicely presented, looks more homely than yours www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/114492629#/media?channel=RES_BUY&id=media3&ref=photoCollage.[/quote]
Yeah they have lovely furniture! They’ve just gone up with a new agent after being up since last year which is concerning

Yeah they have lovely furniture! They’ve just gone up with a new agent after being up since last year which is concerning

Definitely some things you can take from that listing though to improve yours. They have plants, candles and mirrors. The lamps are on in the photos. There are fresh flowers and it’s been presented with two spaces to work on a laptop.

A quarter million for a 1 bed flat which doesn’t have a separate living room from the kitchen jeeeez. I would assume at the moment it’s out of a lot of people’s budgets considering everything going on in the world.
Is it lived in? It looks a bit bare like someone has half moved out.

Lease 123 years. Is that a problem and can it be easily extended. I don't think the maintenance charge is too bad but it depends whats included. I agree its nicely presented but a few rugs cushions and plants would be a good idea.

I think the photos are strange.....very chopped off! It made me suspect that the flat is miniscule and you can't get back far enough to get photos of more than a part of the room...specially noticeable in the bathroom and kitchen.

@Terminallysleepdeprived

Over £1k of annual fees is a lot to find and would put me off.

The remaining lease is only 123 years, means resale would be effected. Can you afford to try and extend the lease?

It is super expensive for what is a very small 1 bed flat (albeit beautiful). I know the area so it's not necessarily overpriced, but a 1 bed is going to be first timer market and with a lot of the help schemes more first timers are jumping straight to a house.

Good luck OP it is stunning

1k annual service charges are cheap especially for near London.

Also a lease of 123 years is absolutely fine for resale and mortgages. You don't have to worry until it's near 80 years when marriage value kicks in. I wouldn't waste money extending an already long enough lease.

@Mymapuddlington

A quarter million for a 1 bed flat which doesn’t have a separate living room from the kitchen jeeeez. I would assume at the moment it’s out of a lot of people’s budgets considering everything going on in the world. Is it lived in? It looks a bit bare like someone has half moved out.

I paid almost £270k and some flats in the building (all one bed with open plan living) sold for £300k! Yes, we live and work here every day. But I agree - we will be adding some homely decor bits based on all this feedback! Thank you

Wow, there’s an 8 bedroom grade 2 listed near me for 140k shows how out of touch I am lol

@godmum56

I think the photos are strange.....very chopped off! It made me suspect that the flat is miniscule and you can't get back far enough to get photos of more than a part of the room...specially noticeable in the bathroom and kitchen.

There’s been a few comments on the photos and I was always unsure of them too, so I’m looking forward to getting new ones when we change agents. I’ll definitely take these insights into account when guiding the photographer!!

I think it’s beautiful. You’d get a three bedroom detached in my area for that money, but the flat itself is lovely

@Viviennemary

Lease 123 years. Is that a problem and can it be easily extended. I don't think the maintenance charge is too bad but it depends whats included. I agree its nicely presented but a few rugs cushions and plants would be a good idea.

123 years is ages for a lease. Mortgage companies start getting itchy at about 80 years

The market for flats is heinous. We bought our London flat in 2016, just before the leave vote, for 345k. Sold it last month for 315k. Was glad to get rid of it even at that massive loss tbh as suspect it'll only get worse. I'd lower the price if I were you.

You can do all the things people suggest but the main one is the price...If it wasn't overpriced it would sell.

Definitely big up the storage available. That's a big selling point.

Flats don't seem to be much in demand at the moment. Can't sell ours either!

That's so harsh @Puisanceel but I think you've done the right thing.

I think it looks very appealing and fine, and can’t see anything obviously “wrong”

The only thing is that since the pandemic, everyone is looking for a place with access to an outdoor garden or patio

So house prices are up, but demand for flats with no garden access is down

That's so harsh@Puisanceelbut I think you've done the right thing.

Yeah, I was just glad to get out before we got into negative equity.

@Puisanceel

The market for flats is heinous. We bought our London flat in 2016, just before the leave vote, for 345k. Sold it last month for 315k. Was glad to get rid of it even at that massive loss tbh as suspect it'll only get worse. I'd lower the price if I were you.

That’s so tough! Congrats on finally selling!!

@Aria999

Flats don't seem to be much in demand at the moment. Can't sell ours either!

Oh no!! Good luck trying to sell. It’s such a tough time!

Honestly OP I'd lower the price if I were you. Once we dropped ours we sold it in less than a week and we had three offers.