There will be loads of houses coming on the market soon....

[Eggcited]

When is this mythical soon that people speak of?

Perhaps my local area missed the memo, as it feels like there's less coming on the market.
I just wondered if anyone else was in the same position?

Also expect to see more downsizing...people just won't be able to afford to heat their huge 5 bed houses or pay the increased mortgage costs, energy and Council Tax bills.

I do expect this particularly as these homes are often owned by older people

Having said the rising costs & potential recession make me not want to move 😆

DH and I will soon be retired. We have looked at moving to a more interesting area, maybe small arty town. We have good savings for out later years but the main deterrent is the cost of the move. There would be stamp duty of £12.5k on purchase. over £4k on estate agents fees,
maybe another £5k in all on legal costs, surveys removals etc. So, over £20k on the cost of moving and on top of that unless we moved to a new house there would probably be some renovations on new house and of course odd bits of furniture and curtains etc. We would need to buy for about £75k less than we sold for to cover the likely costs so it really isn't an option until we are so old we need a 2 bedroom flat. Out of our little group of friends 14 in total are now retired and only two of them have moved. One sold a farm and moved to the suburbs and the other moved to the back of beyond and bought a bargain huge house ( now regretting this) We all like the idea of moving but the costs don't stack up.

Traditionally more houses come to market in the spring from May onwards. People like to move over summer holidays so kids start new school in September. Not many new houses coming to market in West Midlands.

Hardly anything on market (not looking, looking for DB and his family).

The one house I did see that I liked was overvalued.

We all like the idea of moving but the costs don't stack up.

Everyone I know has had no issue with the costs of downsizing or upsizing elsewhere when older because of their huge property gains over the decades. My inlaws house was 60k in the 90s & sold for 1.8m

Yes, I agree that the costs of downsizing/upsizing when you're older are easily absorbed. We're in our 60's and moved areas and swapped an old cottage with a huge garden for a more manageable four bed detached and had a decent surplus afterwards. The main issue of downsizing is trying to find something that suits without feeling cramped and overlooked. It's not easy and actually we've ended up with more square footage inside but a more manageable garden outside. (The main aim, however, was to be nearer to our daughter). This all happened in 2019, for which I'm eternally grateful.

There's not much on the market in our large village at all, the sale of one house which was in my opinion vastly over-priced has just fallen through. So it will be interesting to see if they get another buyer soon.

However in our general area I have noticed more coming on the market and definitely more reductions.

@Halllyup17 people who struggle to pay their bills are not the people who want to move- they simply don’t have the finances to move (stamp duty, legal fees, moving costs). They are also more likely to be renting. If you’re talking about older people who may want to downsize- then they will have built so much equity in their properties, this shouldn’t be an issue

@douper

We all like the idea of moving but the costs don't stack up.

Everyone I know has had no issue with the costs of downsizing or upsizing elsewhere when older because of their huge property gains over the decades. My inlaws house was 60k in the 90s & sold for 1.8m

They may have made a shed load of money... but most will require an onward property, which will also have increased in price massively. Unless moving to a much cheaper area I should think moving costs are really going to put people off.

More available in Devon than I can remember at any point in the last two years. And expect a lot to come on shortly, as soon as everything greens up. But they're definitely not selling like they used to. My friend got something quite a long way under asking a couple of weeks ago, which would never have happened last year.

They may have made a shed load of money... but most will require an onward property, which will also have increased in price massively. Unless moving to a much cheaper area I should think moving costs are really going to put people off.

Tbf there is still plenty of suitable houses for under 1m even in their area.

It’s dead where we are and we’re getting desperate estate agents leaflets through the door daily: “free valuations!” (They’re always free, pal), “national valuation week” etc, which says to me not many people are budging. We’re being valued this week, photos the next then hopefully up on Rightmove quickly.

But then there’s only tumbleweed where we want to buy, and we’re painting quite a broad brush with destination – various East Sussex towns and cities on the list. The house I’d had my eye on and hoped would linger on the market (it’s been on a while and newly reduced) sold today, annoyingly – there’s so little on that’s left after that. Fingers crossed for a sunny April and an influx of properties!

OP this is exactly what I’ve been thinking earlier today, almost nothing here over the last week or two 🤦🏼‍♀️

I remember back in 2015 everyone was asking when will more houses come on to the market and the consensus was that sellers were just holding off until the General Election was done and out of the way and then things would get back to 'normal'

Since then the stock levels have fallen and fallen... and fallen.

I can remember in 2015 there were around 20-25 houses for sale in my village, today.... one!

It's dire where we live, barely anything on the market. We've been looking for nearly 2 years, and whatever comes on sells at stupid prices. We were going to upsize but are now wondering about staying put and enduring the NDN's from hell for a while longer.........

@Yants

I remember back in 2015 everyone was asking when will more houses come on to the market and the consensus was that sellers were just holding off until the General Election was done and out of the way and then things would get back to 'normal'

Since then the stock levels have fallen and fallen... and fallen.

I can remember in 2015 there were around 20-25 houses for sale in my village, today.... one!

Yes, increase in population but far less houses being built and many being used as holiday lets and airbnb so much less available to buy.

My ds and dil are looking and anything decent sells in the first weekend way over asking price. They've offered on several houses over asking price but been outbid.

The only properties not selling seem to be on busy roads or have really bad layouts which will cost a lot to resolve.

We started looking recently and in the last month there's been 1 house come onto the market! We need 4 bedrooms which seems impossible to find! Everything decent sells immediately in the area we're looking at (desirable town in Somerset) and often for well over the asking price.

The estate I live on was originally a council estate, now 60/40 private/council. Houses are selling as soon as they go on sale for what is silly money, the house I bought in 2001 for £34k sold in 2018 for £105k & is now on sale for £140k. It's nothing special, there are ones that are virtually a shell in bidding wars from first time buyers, one went on sale a fortnight ago offers over £90k, latest offer was £115k with no kitchen or bathroom & needs completely gutting, will cost at least £30k to put in a livable state.

I read an article today some institute or group calling for Rishi Sunak to institute a stamp duty holiday to help "stimulate market" activity.

Not much up here at all and anything in our Village sells like hot cakes. We bought ours 9 months ago and a nearby very similar house, but without a garage, is currently up for OIEO 80k more than we paid for this.

I remember reading similar on here last year, when apparently all those probate houses were coming up for elderly people that had died with Covid.

I really don’t think it’s possible to guess how or when changed will happen. FWIW, I don’t think there will be any changes coming quickly, people will stay where they are if they can rather than take any more risks.

Hardly anything is coming on in my area of choice. I've widened my search but there really is very little which is affordable in any surrounding areas. Some places are getting snapped up very fast. I'm getting nagged by pushy estate agent as I have an offer (from people who claimed they were willing to wait) and it's been a few weeks looking. It's not for want of trying and I'm beginning to wonder if we should pull out altogether. Fingers crossed more comes on very soon.

I think most people would be wise to stay put as we all wait for the impact of cost of living increases. 18 months ago we were looking at moving as we can afford a £650k home and are currently in a £400k home so could move to similar space in a village. I’m so glad we didn’t move as we aren’t too panicked about the increased. Obviously everyone is in a different position and some might want to downsize. Likely to be a slow market for a while though.