Dropping price to increase again if no sale?

[Nosecat12]

Hello,

Our apartment (in central London) has been on the market for 3.5 months. We had viewers but no offers yet. No viewers for the past 2/3 weeks (put down by agent to it being August).

We want to move by Christmas and so are considering dropping the price by about 10% for the next month to try to secure an offer that can complete on that timeline (but we can't accept any lower than this - our current asking price is already less than we paid for the flat). If we don't get one, we will be going into rented accommodation so will be looking to put the price back up as we will have at least another 6/12 months to get an offer sorted.

Does this seem feasible? Thank you

This is so hard, OP.

Do you trust your EA? A good one ought to be able to advise you properly but these seem rare.

Can people find the history of price changes online? The problem I see is that if the lower price can be easily found, people won’t offer more.

At minimum I think you to take the house off the market for a while before re-listing at the higher price

I am sorry but I don’t think moving before Xmas is likely, unless you find a cash buyer who isn’t bothered about surveys etc. You might be better off going into rented, taking it off the market and re listing it in February.

If you want to reduce, you should so it straight away as Christmas isn't that far away in terms of property transactions.
However, as someone said about, potential buyers can track price changes online and may well be put off if you fail to sell and then increase the price.

Agree with this - especially with a flat where there is extra work to do with the conveyancing for leasehold, management etc. Even if you drop the asking price, when you've been on the market a while offers are likely to come in at below asking because people will assume you are getting desperate.

I’m presuming it’s a 2 bed with no outdoor space? Unfortunately the market really bombed on those properties in particular (I know because unfortunately I had to sell one earlier this year for well below its previous purchase price). Plus if you really do mean central London eg zone 1 you’re probably looking at very upmarket areas such as Marylebone or Kensington and again the market for those well off couples or single people looking to buy is dropping because of labour - a lot of mobile wealthy people are leaving London.

It also sounds like you put it on the market just before the summer hols which is the weakest time to sell. It’s been fairly dead.

is there any option to rent it out or airbnb it for 6 months (central london flat over Xmas and Nyear I imagine would be quite lucrative) and put it on the market with a new agent in early spring?

Sorry but I think it’s a terrible idea because if you reduce it then end up increasing the price again, that will look terrible to potential buyers. And they will be able to find out the information very easily if they are savvy buyers.

Is your EA any good or do you feel they aren’t proactive enough? A good EA should be advising you to reduce by about 5% at this stage if you are serious about selling by Christmas. Which is just about possible if you get a cash buyer which is more common in central London.

I don’t understand why you will be going into rented accommodation if you don’t sell by Christmas.