Another why is my house not selling post

[Alldressedupnowheretogo]

I have a mid terraced house on the market in the most desirable street in St Albans. Priced at £600k which exactly fits (sold) comps and reflectsw we I spent renovating it + average valuation gain in the area since i bought it.

Must have had 30 viewings. Two offers on the first open house day at £5k below asking. Both fell through. Another FTB then offered and pulled out.

It’s all freshly decorated and staged. It’s a cottage like most in this area - disadvantages of these structures are downstairs bathroom and no hallway - but with the addition of a fully tanked basement with spare room/reception and home office. The moisture levels are the same on each floor so no damp in the basement. The doors and windows are beautifully re-done. The kitchen is De Vol.

It’s been on for three months. What do I do?

I think it’s my target market (FTBs, divorcees) not being able to get their mortgages as they all keep coming and people are offering and then pulling out.

But these are the things that maybe make it hard to sell?

Lack of parking spaces for residents (city centre issue).

Extra 300 ft of basement space not worth much?

People freak out about basements even when fully tanked?

Can’t do the loft as it’s Grade II listed.

Price??? Not sure about this one as the fallen-through offers were v close to asking.

Viewer feedback is mainly that they think basement will flood (not in flood zone) and the stairs need repainting (yes but srsly??)

Help?

You generally expect a fitted kitchen to fit. Too many gaps where the finishing wasn't completed, and the design bodge for the integrated oven is an 'interesting' choice to go with.

In Spring, a rundown 3 bed (visible holes in the roof) on his street that had been empty for 2 years went under offer within a week of going on the market. Boyfriend and neighbours thought it was at least £50k overpriced at £785k.
The sale completed last month for £750k. Turns out the house was sold to first time buyers in their late 20s.
The madness of the St Albans property market😀Perhaps the OP has underpriced the house! 😂

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/67806796/?search_identifier=7484f0494a15af6aa385681b2c3883a6e4835d3d1a4fef78e3805a6a7690960f

Its this one I assume

Says sold subject to contract on the agents site? Personally 600k for a 2 bedroomed property? Absolutely not

Just be patient, it takes time. A lot of things to weigh up, especially for such a high amount.

Aren’t people waiting on this budget next week? To see what Keir Stalin has in store ?

I don't think the idea of sharing a front door and all of what that entails would be popular....

Who is sharing a front door?

The half house I suppose

It's the beginning of a market crash, that's why. Prices have been inflated for over a decade, insanely during Covid, and now we are seeing more and more sales fall through or very little actual offers. The affordability is just not there any more. I am sorry that you are struggling, but the upward trend cannot go on forever. The actual economy is in much worse state than the government wants to admit. The debt bubble is insane and there's not much they can do to fix it. It has to correct itself through some painful lessons. Currently, it's obvious that we are at a stalemate point. Buyers are not buying, and sellers are not selling/reducing. That will change in the favour of the buyers soon as it happens every time when the market corrects.

This is when the sellers have two options: start lowering the price to reflect the actual market value of what the market is willing to offer, or, like many right now, remain stubbornly at the current asking price and play the waiting game to see who's going to hold on for longer, you or the buyers.
Pro tip: usually, the market always wins and eventually, most sellers buckle and lower the prices, it only takes a few of them to start doing it which increases the competition and forces others to do it, too. However, if you are not in a hurry, you can always wait and hope someone who cares very little about their money in the current economy will buy it. The problem is, people who are very rich and good with money, understand what's happening right now and are not buying. And the people who stretch to buy it, are more than ever appreciating their money as it's tight. So your pool is actually more limited than you think - you probably need someone who desperately wants a house in St Albans and will be an emotional buyer with easy money.

Nice enough decor but the layout means the bathroom takes up a wall which really should have big doors into the garden for an inside- outside space.

I understand why some folks would like to beleive that, but it’s not correct, the Bank of England won’t let it crash, they control it with interest rates. It’s a bit more involved than that, but it won’t crash unless the bank chooses to make that happen.

I do not have a crystal ball as others on here seem to believe they have, so this is just my opinion.
The op’s house is not selling as the market has stalled due to movers waiting for budget clarity, anticipated interest rate cuts and cheaper mortgage deals this year.

You won’t sell right now even if you drop your house price unless you want to give it away!!

Savvy sellers who can’t sell should hold off until the end of November and then remove their house from the market and re-list in the new year when things have settled down.

House prices are possibly at their lowest right now, if things improve in the New year as expected, buyers listening to online speculation waiting for a price crash may be in for disappointment and end up paying more and with more competition by next spring.

Labour will NOT extend the stamp duty relief in April 2025 and savvy buyers are purchasing before this sets in to avoid paying more for their home.

The following points will stimulate the market by next year:

If Labour offer more help to first time buyers in the budget this will encourage first home purchases which will trickle up the chain but they will have more competition which could stabilise house prices or even increase them.

The rental market is in an appalling state with evictions, lots of Landlords have sold up to avoid the CGT increase in October so there are less properties to rent. The higher cost of renting due to lack of availability and compared to a much lower monthly mortgage fee will entice people to buy and gain an asset in the process as opposed to renting.

The 20% VAT on private schools will encourage parents to move close to good state and grammar schools (increasing house prices in these locations) and the ones who keep their children in private may sell to release equity to fund the fees and move to a less expensive home (increasing sales in mid range house prices)

Interest rates will drop this year and next year. Mortgages are already cheaper now and banks are starting to offer better deals.

There aren’t enough properties in the UK to go round!!!

As long as the market stabilises and people start buying again the prices will remain at the level they are now or possibly increase.

Despite a budget-shaped cloud on the horizon, the big picture still looks positive for the market heading into 2025. Those waiting for this supposed ‘Price crash’ may be in for a disappointment. Time will tell.

There aren’t enough properties in the UK to go round!!!

There are more than enough properties to go around, they're just not all in the right place or of the right type that people are looking for.

The previous government was controlled by the Bank of England. The Truss budget was declared unworkable only because the Bank of England refused to support it. It might have worked.

Now we find out if the relationship with the labour government and the Bank of England will work. Is this government going to be more easily be persuaded to hand over the reins to the Bank? If the Bank think they can manipulate a labour government more easily than the conservative government, will that be fair on the people?

@Susanap ’Labour will NOT extend the stamp duty relief in April 2025 and savvy buyers are purchasing before this sets in to avoid paying more for their home. ’

All that happens is people panic and pay inflated prices negating any stamp duty savings.
A savvy buyer would wait until after April when prices will need to drop to counter the increased stamp duty.
Horses for courses obviously.

Quote HellsBalls:’ All that happens is people panic and pay inflated prices negating any stamp duty savings.‘

So if house prices don’t crash and they stabilise or increase by April 2025 then buyers will be paying maybe a higher house price plus higher stamp duty.

Quote HellsBalls : ‘A savvy buyer would wait until after April when prices will need to drop to counter the increased stamp duty.’

Again, same answer.

Risky strategy for a buyer to wait. Any savvy seller able to, will not play into the online scaremongering and ‘panic reduce’ their selling price and just take it off the market until everything has settled after the looming budget.
None of us knows what is going to happen, it’s all speculation.

The previous government was controlled by the Bank of England. The Truss budget was declared unworkable only because the Bank of England refused to support it.

That’s an interesting take on Truss’s unfunded tax cuts that she didn’t bothering running past the OBR because she knew it failed to meet the Government’s own public borrowing and debt targets.

Truss scared the markets, Government bond interest rates soared to levels where Government debt would have skyrocketed and Truss was bailed out by the BofE guaranteeing £65 billion to buy Government debt.

It might have worked.

Now I know you’re having a laugh.

@Alldressedupnowheretogo Ignoring the people who are not in the St Albans area, so don’t understand prices, I think your issue might be bathroom on the ground flour. Your price is about right and 4 other similar cottages are at the same price. They have upstairs bathrooms. I love the area where you are! I also think your kitchen has a couple of design issues. Mainly making room for a radiator and squashing up the ovens. The return on the work surface makes a cubby hole. Your floor space is decent but maybe, as you say, the cellar is an issue. However a survey would assure buyers it’s ok.

So maybe the market is sluggish as the budget is coming. The radio reported today that some mortgage rates were going up. That seems odd. My other comment is agent. Does this one have a London presence? I’ve not heard of them.

If you look at the frontage and the floor plan and the blurb neighbour has shared access ...

2 bed terrace leading straight onto the road. That's a crazy price but I suppose its the area

The price is right for what?

If the OP wants to sit on the market and moan that the house is not selling, the price is obviously right for that.

If she wants to sell the house, having the same price as four other very similar/slightly more desirable properties which are not selling for that price at the moment anyway doesn't seem to do the trick.

Noone suggests to align the price with far north, just observing, that the price rise expectations might be over the current reality.

Yes, it's more involved than lowering interest rates. Just a touch! They will try to prevent 'a crash' but, if the economy deteriorates massively, they won't be able to pull it off. They couldn't during the GFC.

That's not really what happened.
Yes, the BOE made major mistakes in their lack of regulation of the LDI market and risks (and bond yields) were rising as the Truss/ Kwarteng budget approached, which the BOE were obviously aware of. Their foolish budget, completely lacking in planning and checks was the icing on the cake. It was very handy for the BOE, etc to be able to blame them but they made major errors.
Labour, seem to be at great pains to raise taxes as well as spending in an effort to try to persuade the bond market that they will 'balance the books'. Obviously that's pretty unlikely but they are not doing a Truss. What they may do is increase the coming big spike in unemployment more rapidly and higher, increase bankruptcies and encourage well qualified, high earners to move abroad, thereby lowering tax revenue.

What someone who lives in St Albans thinks the price should be/ has historically been is not very relevant if most of these similar houses are not selling as they presumably did previously at these prices. Things never stay the same and house prices are extremely unlikely to continue to rise in real terms in anything like the way they have in the past 35 years. In fact, the opposite is true.