Nothing seems to be selling at the minute?

[pitsoffashion]

We want to move at some point this year so I’ve been keeping an eye on Rightmove the past couple of months. Hardly anything seems to be selling in both our current town and the town we want to move to (10 miles away). Everything just sits there for months. Is it time of year? Or maybe just specific to where I live?

I personally think a lot of people are holding out either waiting for price reductions or for rates to come down or the houses could just be in poor conditions.
Building costs have shot up plus it’s really hard to get builders in without having to wait ages so a lot of people are put off by this as well.

It all boils down to prospective buyer affordability

"It all boils down to prospective buyer affordability"

As the above poster points out.

Prices are slowly re setting to the new costs of borrowing - but its a painfully slow process. Anything priced appropriately in my area sells quickly - but loads of stuff sits not moving at prices that aren't realistic anymore.

Where we are it seems that the whole market is stagnant. We have had a LOT of offers, but people have either not sold themselves or are cobbling together financial packages with bridging loans and let-to-buy that are just falling apart.

I think around here things have started to pick up a bit, but certainly in the early autumn it looked like nothing was moving. The problem is, if FTB can't get the mortgage they need, chains never start, and so very little sells. In most areas, house prices may have dropped a little from peak or at least are not increasing, so people are reluctant to list property unless they absolutely need to sell.

As I say, in my town, it looks like things have started to pick up, and nice, straightforward properties with no issues do seem to be selling. However, there are equally still properties on Rightmove that have been there for nearly a year (more in a few cases) with price reductions etc and obviously haven't sold. I think some of them are overpriced for what they are, and with some of them I can see there are issues in terms of location/awkward layout/listed/weird leashold arrangement etc which would put some buyers off. My assumption is the other ones that haven't sold have some issue that isn't obvious from the listing.

I think it is all quite regional, and maybe things will pick up in the spring- although interest rates haven't been dropped as expected and that may be an issue.

In 2021 I moved from a small town in the west country. When I sold my bungalow then there were 3 bungalows on the market and they all sold quickly. Today there are over 50 bungalows on the market in the town.

None are selling despite price reduction after price reduction and the situation has been and continues to gradually worsen.

I'm imagining that most people who buy bungalows aren't first time buyers.

Buyers can afford less because of the increased cost of borrowing and sellers have yet to accept that prices will need to reduce as a result. Everyone is asking too much.

So - looking at the latest office for national statistics data it does show a significant fall in the number of estimated transactions. If its not priced correctly its not selling. At least in England.

"Comparing the provisional volume estimate for the current month with the revised volume estimate for the corresponding month in the previous year. October 2022 was 67,264 transactions, October 2023 only 37,026 !!

That's nearly a 50% change. I think this price re set might have quite a long way still to go. Unless of course the base rate goes back to 0.5%. Which seems highly unlikely.

If there's no first time buyers, chains can't start, which means less people are able to move. Even if your house is never likely to be bought by a first time buyer, you need someone at the start of the chain. That's a first time buyer or an investor/cash buyer realistically. If people in those groups aren't buying, then it slows down the whole market.

Your right this is key.
So for the market to start to free up again, one of two things must happen. Either prices need to reset to the new costs of borrowing or the cost of borrowing needs to go back to to emergency levels.
My feeling is it will probably have to be the prices that correct.

I think it's very dependent on area. I'm very aware of that because the town I'm selling in (asking price offer after first weekend of viewings) there's a good amount of sales for properties that are priced realistically. This is a popular commuter town for London, gets lots of young families. But where I'm going 25 miles further from London, the market is really stagnant and seems to be mostly people viewing and offering on houses when they haven't sold theirs so it's all just imaginary. Things there are just sitting for months, probably a fair number have been on Rightmove for over a year, some have come off and gone back on again in that sort of time.

Even here where the right things are moving quite fast, it's super price-sensitive. No-one will touch over-priced properties. There's a tatty and overpriced one in my road that's been on for 3 months so far doing nothing, (they've just dropped it 3k but are probably more like 30k over priced) while two other of us in this road have sold in just days.

'It all boils down to prospective buyer affordability'
This.

I have also been watching this with increasing worry. We are relocating and the house is going on the market in about 2 weeks. Nothing is selling here. Although, I do think there is an average overpricing of about 20%, local to me. We plan to be much more realistic, but I am still very concerned. We need to make this move happen, but there will be a floor below which it will not be viable.

We are looking to downsize. Things priced well and in good condition are going very fast. But many properties are overpriced. Then they just end up being reduced some months later and still sitting there as they have been on sale for too long.
Realistic pricing is key.