Is this a good time to put a house on the market

[sametimeandeplace]

Please give me your opinions.

I live in zone 2 SE London, and my house has been valued at £1.1m (Foxtons!), £950k all others.... It's a three bed, with garden. I am giving this information as those with local market knowledge might also be able to help - is this a good time to put it on the market (I will be going with the lower figure)?

What have been the experiences of those of you who are selling now, in London or elsewhere?

In parts of London the market can change road-by-road, zone 2 SE London probably isn't enough info to give detailed opinions.

But, whilst the autumn/early winter market is rarely the busiest, those buyers that are looking are generally serious, and there is likely to be reduced competition from other sellers.

On the other hand there are likely to be more people looking come the new year, but equally more competition.

There's an argument to get it on now, give it 4 weeks, if no bites take off and hit the market again mid/late February.

I think spring it a popular time for putting property on the market, but if anyone is serious/needing to move, they'll still be looking and you might avoid a few time wasters.

We've put property on the market three times. First time was February, very nice offer the next day. Second time was Sept-Dec - had an interested party, but they could sell their own, we decided to stay. Third time - went on in January - we had three offers within six weeks.

Stamp duty will rise in March so there will be people looking to buy now to get it before that happens.

I’d go for it but price it realistically. Around me decent properties which are priced realistically are still going well. If you price reasonably you’ll likely get more than one person interested too.

I would assume that if someone offers now they’re unlikely to expect to be in for Christmas but it might be best at offer stage to be clear about whether you think that’s feasible or not.

Spring might be a traditional time to go on the market but you’ll have more competition then.

I live in the Peak District and it appears that well modernised, fairly priced property is selling well. If the property is a doer upper in terms of not been touched in the last 30 years it is sticking on the market. So many of the doer uppers are being marketed at only 20 or 30 thousand less than turn key houses yet they need 40 thousand plus spending on them.

November isn’t a great time to list a house.

If you’re in no particular hurry I would leave it until about February.

I don’t think the SDLT changes are going to make a lot of difference at this price level

Agreed.

At this price point higher Stamp duty is annoying but not a deal breaker.

No, but the market as a whole will be moving more than it usually does at this time of year as a result.

And it does make a difference - London houses at this price aren’t necessarily being bought by people with high incomes, but equity built into their funding sale as they’re basically buying the next step up from a flat. An extra 10k in stamp duty can matter if your liquidity is not high.