Anyone noticed the market has changed?

[yaxe]

We are in the process of buying (have sold) & it was mad in March, lots of overbidding etc. I've noticed now reductions & stuff is staying on rather than going in a wk. It's making me a bit nervous tbh.

We are already needing to look at places about 50k less than we would have this time last year thanks to interest rates. I like to take my time over decision making, I just don't get how people make such a huge decision after one fifteen minute viewing.

We are seeing houses returning to the market after being sold stc 4/5 months ago. I have been offered three 4 beds in a week or so. All need updating.
We have been trying to buy for over a year. £8500 spent so far on legal, mortgage fees and a survey.
Second viewing tomorrow of a lovely house but not in a great village. Very few options as we are 1 hour from London with outstanding schools. If we don't buy this one I worry we will wait years for another option. The seller wants a 100% profit in 3 years! Not a major development. I can't see why but the agent has set the price and we had to queue to see it. No reductions here unless tatty or no parking.

I think it is totally outrageous that sellers/buyers can pull out when you've shelled out so much money. IMO buyers should only be able to pull out if the survey reveals issues or their circumstances have provably changed. Sellers should only be able to pull out if circumstances provably changed. At the very least if they just pull out because they change their minds and you've already shelled out for solicitors and surveys then they should have to cover the cost. The system is awful.

I would love to change the system too. I had an offer accepted on a property in July 2021 and am still waiting to complete my purchase. To be brief, I was at the bottom of a chain of four and the sellers at the top turned out to be arseholes, keeping the rest of us waiting for an extra eight months for their probate to come through, only to then pull out of the sale. This has cost us all a lot of money, but we have no legal redress.

It could be even worse. I have a colleague who’s been trying to buy a flat for two years, but there are legal wrangles over access rights. The last I heard, she was on her fourth mortgage offer and she can’t find an alternative property, as prices have risen too much in the meantime.

I have friends from Lithuania and Romania who tell me that in their countries, you can buy a property in an afternoon! That amazes me. I wonder which country in the world has the best system?

I really think that once you have put an offer in you should be legally bound to go through with the purchase unless a) costly issues are found during the survey or b) your personal financial circumstances change.

I really think that once you have put an offer in you should be legally bound to go through with the purchase unless a) costly issues are found during the survey or b) your personal financial circumstances change

Or all buyers need to put down a holding deposit.

2% of the house price paid to get it off the market. Survey must be completed within a month and deposit lost if you pull out a couple of weeks post survey.

I personally think it’s OK to pull out soon after the survey (say within two weeks), but maybe there should be penalties for pulling out after that.

But a holding deposit to get the property off the market might be good. If it applied to both the buyer and seller it would reduce gazumping.

I’m not sure people are talking it up so much as living in a local hotspot.

Stuff is still going to highest bidder around here, and I am certainly not happy about it - we are being priced out. I’d love a return to 2019 prices. But that isn’t what we are seeing locally, and unfortunately for us it was a mistake to wait until the bubble burst, because it hasn’t and we’ve now missed out on houses we could have afforded.

Don't worry. The way the Tories are going, we appear to have the start of a sterling crisis which would necessitate a massive rate hike and a big house price fall.

Totally agree that the house buying system is a mess in this country. It would be better if the seller commissioned an independent survey so that the condition of the house is known before an offer is submitted.

And people needing to look at dropping their offer prices is replicated millions of times, which is absolutely great for society in the long run, but I believe a run on the pound is coming now as other posters have said, and there will have to be an emergency uplift in rates, the last time this happened was 30 years ago! People hoping to offload property who have not done so are probably too late.

It hasn`t yet, the conditions to burst it only appeared a few weeks ago! You have saved yourself a lot of economic pain IMO.

Hmm, we could have bought a house for £850k in 2020, on a 2.5% mortgage. Similar houses are now on the market for £1.1m, and mortgages are 4.5%. If prices drop to £1m next year, but mortgages are 6.5% as predicted, we are still a lot worse off than if we’d bought two years ago.

Can I ask you knowledgeable people a question? We have seen a house we like at £650k. It was bought by the current owners 3 years ago for £220k. It has had a full renovation. New roof, wiring, kitchen, bathrooms, under floor heating. Etc. No extension. It seems an enormous increase but the national agent says it is competitively priced. I would like to pay £625k in light of the new stamp duty limits however I am getting sucked teeth from the EA. We are 1 hour from London. Am I being a chancer or reasonable? We have lost three houses in 18 months and are renting.

The EA works for the vendor and is paid to suck teeth at low offers and to talk the property up.

Make your offer. They are legally obliged to put the offer to the vendor so they can decide whether it's cheeky or not.

It sounds overpriced to me, based on house price inflation in recent years and value of any renovation that doesn't increase the footprint.

That sounds like a massive mark up in a very short period of time.
How does it compare to other houses in the area?
Of course you are not being a chancer putting in an offer under asking price. That is what most people do in a normal market. Having said that, I expect prices to come down so you could just wait 6 months and see.

@rainingsnoring
There are three similar houses for sale. £635-750k but the latter has a garage and additional bedroom. They are all period.
The house suits us as I am slightly disabled and need a downstairs bedroom. Most people wouldn't like that I believe and could effect the opportunity to re sell at a later date. The house has been on the market for a month.

I would definitely start low if you definitely want to buy now.

A few months ago you could barely find any 3 bed semis within 5 miles of my house; now there are about 80. They were going for £475-500k but only this morning I saw half a dozen either put on new for sale at £425k or reduced to £425k so as to get quick sales on the back of the stamp duty changes.

I planned to move based on getting £450k for my 3 bed semi, I won't get that now so I think I am stuck here (was hoping to move on after divorce and that price would have given us just enough equity each). Its a nice house in a nice area, but unfortunately my STBexH lives in it too!

I live (currently renting but in conveyancing for a purchase) in what was one of the absolute hot spots, even this spring. Now things are coming on and staying on, and getting reduced. Stuff that reappears from earlier in the year is coming on at a lower price. I suspect the house we offered on in July would now cost us less but we like it and intend to live in it for a long time, so are not thinking about that. More of concern is that we have only got a 2 year fixed rate for complicated reasons, and I worry that at the end of that period, rates will be through the roof.

@Doubleraspberry can't you reapply for a longer term mortgage to protect yourself better? Are you so set on this particular house that you are prepared to take a financial hit, possibly a very large one?

No. It’s complex but it’s the right decision for us right now. It MAY be that we can get a different product with the same lender in the next few weeks but it would be at a slightly higher fixed rate than we currently have because the rates have changed since we applied - we’d still go for that but we need to wait to see what our circumstances are.

It won’t be a massive financial hit unless rates are totally 90s level: current worst predictions have gone this week from 4% at the highest to 6%. So it would be painful but not a killer at that rate.

One thing I haven't noticed is prices going down at the "lower end" - so a house that was £260k 6 months ago is now up at £290k and no sign of a slew of price drops. That must mean something, but I can't do the maths! Maybe there's a "price point" at which FTB houses are not affected?

@Doubleraspberry - I meant a financial hit as in a fall in value.
Good luck with your purchase, I hope it works out well.

@HangerLaneGyratorySystem - I agree that the lower end seems to be moving better than the mid and higher end.

I just did a quick search in my town, looking at all properties marketed in the last 14 days.
About 11% are now marked as STC. However, out of these, half were reduced and therefore not marketed in the last 14 days in reality. Overall, just over 5% marked as STC within 14 days of marketing and all in the lower portion of the market, great majority under 250K. I wonder if they are being sold to FTB or down-sizers. These contrasts markedly with last year when 90%+ were marked as STC within a few days never mind 14.