Are there just not many houses coming onto the market?

[Yikesno]

It seems like there aren't very many small terraced houses coming on the market where we want to buy (south London). I'm just wondering whether this is normal or whether fewer houses are coming on at the moment due to all the market turbulence.

I've also noticed that decent houses are selling really quickly. Often our viewings are getting cancelled as the house has gone under offer before we've had a chance to see it. On the one hand this feeling of scarcity is making us feel we need to rush/offer a bit more than we're comfortable with. On the other hand maybe we should just wait until next year whe there might be more supply?

Please could you tell me whether you've noticed fewer houses available to buy than say last year at this time? I've seen a few comments in this forum where people are struggling to find something to buy. I also know people who want to move but have decided to wait things out so their house isn't going up for sale.

I have seen four former air b and bs for sale in N Yorks in the last 2 months - at least in areas I was considering, which was not many. I have seen one appear on the normal rental market. It took a long long time to rent. The problem with air b and bs is a lot of them don’t often make good family homes because they lack any outside space whatsoever. I also saw several in one small area of Scotland (both of which had this problem but sold quickly anyway as they are usually always in VGC).

I'm finding the same with most ex rentals in general - fine to live in for a few weeks/months if you don't have all your belongings, don't need to work from home, don't need to store a bike, and don't want outside space, but not practical to have as a home.

Zoopla claims that the number of houses for sale has reached its highest level since 2016

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/homes-sale-eight-high-sellers-230100647.html

Yes, heaps for sale, but most of them aren't being sold as most are not what people want or need too much rennivation. Clearly a lot of people who've been holding onto an empty property now trying to get rid.

Interesting times here in SE London

We were on the market for several months last year, trying to sell our zone 5 two bedroom split level ground floor maisonette

We had a handful of offers, but some were 30% or less of the asking price, we need a bigger mortgage to size up to a 3 bedroom semi detached. And those 3 bed semis had owners wanting top/asking price for their properties. So we are/were stuck and decided to come off the market....

I've been keeping a close on the market (daily RM checking!) and it's very interesting that a fair few of those same 3 bed semis are still on the market, quite a few have been on since Easter 2023/last year

We're not sure what to do, personally l cannot face the whole thing again but we could certainly do with more space

This situation was certainly us all over last spring/summer...we're still waiting it out, but what else can we do (apart from move a few hundred miles away from our home, families and friends!)

I would consider moving just a bit further out… can have a big impact on prices in London

Huge amount of dross on the market. Many need rewire, flooring, kitchen and bathroom. Lots of old properties with poor EPC. They are usually only priced 30k below pretty well maintained ones (that sell immediately in light of the competition). Whereas they should be 80-100k less ( on a 400k+ initial asking).

I live in a nice village with a good school, houses normally get snapped up, but there are a few that have been up for sale for a while now.

Yes exactly that! Also places with no available parking (even on street) and shared access garden wanting the same price as semi with drive and private garden. One's been on the market for over a year..

I agree. It doesn’t seem like more property you’d want to buy is coming on. It seems like a load of tat that’s overpriced is still hanging about unsold, in this mortgage market.

@Twiglets1

I do appreciate that, but a 'bit further out' for us are places like Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks where prices are really not that much different to zone 5 SE London (for a 3 bed family home) plus factor in the eye watering train fares to commute into London

We had a RM scan of outer areas last year but overall not really worth it factoring in other costs

It's all ex rental terraces, probate or new build here. Barely any decent homes, the few that go on are sold in days not even going to RM. The probate ones are sitting for months and months. They all need lots of updating and tidying up but want COVID prices for the houses. Bungalows are not even making RM and are still going for COVID prices here. The ex rental terraces seem to be slowly moving but are priced too high above ceiling price, then reduced a few times before finally selling for around £30k less than they first went on for.

The new build estates are getting pretty desperate, there are all sorts of deals happening to get people to buy. They are all mid construction and not even half built. I know 2 new build estates have stopped digging until they have sold the built stock. One of my friends has looked at a building site for 6 months and the diggers have been parked up and not moved for months. Another friend on another new build estate is surrounded by 5 empty house shells.

This is the problem in lots of areas.
It's not a lack of homes for sale (the numbers are high as per Zoopla, etc). It's that a lot of sellers are pricing homes too high relative to what buyers can/will pay. I've seen so many just sitting on the market for months, even years or being withdrawn and then re-listed this year. The overpricing applies particularly to those homes needing a huge amount of work and money spent on them.

The change that I have noticed this Spring is that reduction are happening more often and a lot more rapidly then in 2023. Whereas in 2023, sellers might reduce after 6-8 months, now they are reducing in 1-2 months. Perhaps some have realised that they need to be more realistic if they actually want to sell. I'm sure lots of potential sellers can hold off for a while, even for years but some can't and for others, the situation may become more urgent over a year or two. It's a positive sign anyway and is probably leading to more transactions.

Like @Caffeineislife, I've noticed new builds not shifting and several have reduced the headline prices, never mind the incentives.

This is exactly what I’m seeing. We’re holed up in rented looking for a doer upper, but even terrible shells are priced the same as perfect houses two doors away.

We've been looking at one probate that’s been stuck for well over a year and the agent is adamant the the owners won’t budge on price. If you spent £100k on it then it still wouldnt be worth asking price. And we’re a family of builders so all the work would be at cost.

Hi

im trying to get a feel for % reduction, do you mind me asking what region you’re in and also what the final sale price of those terraces is - approximately?

@Brumhilda that must be really frustrating, especially as you all have such a good idea of what the work is likely to cost at present. I don't think these sellers will get the price they want and presumably, if it's a probate sale, they will want to actually sell at some point (unless a family member is actually living in it).

Midlands. Ex rentals are going on for £120k, £135k and actually selling for around £80k. Ceiling price for a mid terrace no parking rental here is around £95k. They all need quite a bit of work as they have been rented for years with little work done to them. All bought by people from the SE and London wanting a bargain.l

Well I don’t have to tell you that they’re not a bargain at £80 if the ceiling is £95, but one way or another we need to clear these people out before the market gets real.

lol..

I’m in se just outside London and very little on the market. The usual houses no one wants and habe been languishing for months or years. But very little coming on other than those, when they do they sell. But it’s few and far between.

@Brumhilda- you might find this helpful. It's direct from the Land Registry data, but obviously a good 6 months out of date as it takes them forever to update their website. The numbers are also very small in recent months as they appear to be taking even longer to update!

https://otta.property/trends

Absolutely, it's more a rip off or complete fleece than a bargain. No-one local even entertains them. Pre covid, the 2 beds were going for around 65k and 3 beds for around £70-75k. The estate agent who is selling them are shoving them on tik tok and boasting about how they are marketing to the SE and London which is an "untapped market" after we now have 4 slow trains a day to London and lots of people can wfh. The houses are in a really rough part, surrounded by drug dens and half way housing, street parking is a nightmare and cars are regularly damaged or broken into by the customers of said drug dens. Some mug paid £140k for one during COVID. They were very unhappy on the FB page when they moved in and realised what they had done. They are trying to sell it for £150k because they put a new bathroom in. It's been for sale for nearly 2 years now.

Oops! I expect there have been lots of example of people from London/ SE thinking they were getting a bargain and rushing in during the pandemic period without doing their due diligence. Silly mistake.

There's a lovely house in the village I like (but way above my budget) that was listed in 2020 for £300k (unsold), then again in Feb 2023 for £485k, then has gradually been reduced since then to £400k recently. So it's clearly been overpriced every time. It doesn't have much of a garden but has a detached plot of land across the road, so that will put people off. If it had been priced correctly in 2020 it would have sold....

I would go and view the houses and ask about the vendors onward moving status and let the agent talk at you.

We viewed a house yesterday which was right at the top end of the £ scale for almost anyone who lives in the area. It’s only been on three weeks. The agent made it clear that the owner is immediately willing to take offers from people in an easy moving position: “so if you like it, you should take a punt and roll the dice and see what they say.”

People can be too embarrassed to publicly reduce their prices and the EAs also don’t like doing it either because it shows they overpriced to anyone paying attention. But the conversations that go on behind closed doors show the reality of moving in this market: some people just have to be flexible on price or even want to, if it makes their life easy.