Anyone selling/buying in SE London?

[MammaDramaLlama]

How are you finding the market if you're buying around Forest Hill/ East Dulwich / Sydenham etc? We have managed to find a buyer for our current place and are looking to buy a 4 bed house but there is really nothing coming on the market since Jan. If you're planning to sell are you waiting till Easter?

We’ve just bought in Honor Oak, but got it off market.
I was surprised at how little was coming on the market while we were searching in that area, and still think there’s not loads coming on around us (I remain RightMove addicted).

That being said there’s a 3 bed that’s just come up on RightMove up the road from us (a few mins walk from the station) for £650k. Needs a full refurb but IMO it’s a steal at that price and could still be done up and extended to a 4 bed without hitting the ceiling price on the road. Assuming it’s got no hidden shocks…!

Congrats on your purchase. I'm starting to think we should explore buying off market as well. How did you go about it if you don't mind sharing? I think I know which house you're talking about but the location won't work for us as we're applying for secondary this year.

We’re SE23 and I think quite a bit of stuff is going under offer off-market: two neighbours have recently gone under offer and their places never made it to Rightmove. I’d definitely register with some agents, make it clear if you’re in a really good position. I also think some people are holding out to see what interest rates do over the two quarters before working out what they can afford to buy and whether it’s worth moving.

I’d spotted our now house on RM at the start of 2024 before we were actually ready to move. All of a sudden it was listed as “off market” (NOT Sold STC etc). Thought nothing of it but kept it saved.

Fast fwd to summer and we’d had our old house valued but weren’t quite mentally ready to list as nothing had come up we were remotely interested in. I decided to call the EA of our now house and find out why it had gone off market; prior sale had fallen through, very disappointed and emotionally drained sellers were going to do some works and relist. We said hold all of that, viewed it that day, put an offer in, and got our house up and under offer in 2 weeks.

Since summer and now, the house I mentioned above is the only other one I’ve seen that I’d consider. So I assume stuff must be going off market. It’ll be worth registering with the main EAs in the area I think.

Re secondary schools, what ones are you looking at if you don’t mind me asking? Lots of good primary schools in the area but I only know of Forest Hill and Pendergast for Secondary.

We've sold our flat in SE but had our own purchase fall through and there's literally one suitable house coming on once a month. It's ridiculous.

I wonder if maybe a part of the problem with houses, and therefore the lack of them coming to market is that unless you are e.g. leaving London for somewhere cheaper, or an older couple downsizing, SDLT changes can make buying a similarly sized or larger house to your current one seem like a fairly poor decision economically as opposed to extending the house you currently have. We love our house and community and neighbours here and so have more or less agreed we’re unlikely to move for those reasons alone; but even if we were thinking about it, SDLT means we’d give a lot more consideration to whether we could do a loft conversion before considering selling up and buying bigger.

Stamp duty costs are insane but I assumed in London that for anyone who isn't a FTB that you aren't looking at huge increases - although saying that I suppose house values play a part.

I'm shocked at how much money people seem to be able to throw at houses. We have a healthy budget but we simply can't compete with people coming over from east London.

If we were looking to upgrade and upsize to our ideal here, we’d be looking at around £35,000 in stamp duty, on top of the increase in our mortgage. With nothing to actually show for that £35,000. For people like us who are otherwise really happy with where we live, extending rather than selling and moving and having to find £35,000 on top of the actual asking price is probably attractive, and will be holding some would-be sellers off the market.

This is it. Like one of the previous posters said maybe they are going off market before hitting any of the portals.

We're not sure about secondary yet - keeping all options open including the scholarship route to Prendergast and Kingsdale. Our default it Sydenham school but also trying to see if ED charter might work if we moved that way (I'm not a 100% convinced about single sex schools)

@ComtesseDeSpair I think I've just mentally factored stamp duty into everything because we sold our flat areas ago and haven't been able to find anything to buy, mentally, stamp duty didn't even form part of my thought process when we were selling (because we need to move into something bigger).

I think we are looking at over £45k for stamp duty which is really quite an insane amount of money!

We were on the market last year but came off (3 bed terrace wanting to upgrade to 4 bed 2 bath). Loads of viewings but no bites (pre election doldrums) and there was so little on the market to move to. Partly the prices of bigger houses weren't coming down (but not selling either), but we also have a very limited geography we can move to for various reasons. Still looking at Rightmove and prices do seem to have dropped a bit in the 4/5 bed category.

We're now going to do work instead, which is also extortionate at the moment but we love the street and area and it's perfect for schools. And the stamp duty factor is a big one. We have had a couple of notes through the door though saying they had seen the house on last year and did we still want to sell it so the off market thing could be right. I can't believe the sold prices on our street and they are mostly east London transplants. We're not big earners either and so the stamp duty is a lot on an increased mortgage.

The work involves a very ambitious planning application so if we don't get it we'll be back on the market again I guess as we're starting to grow out of the house as kids hit secondary school.

I can't believe how much houses are going for. In our area, a house that was bought for £550k 10 years ago is hitting the market at £1.1m and because of the influx of people coming from more expensive areas, the whole place is becoming unaffordable really really fast. We've been here a decade and because we were in a flat, we barely saw an increase in value.

Where are you looking online? I walked past a property with a Foxtons "for sale" sign recently. Went online to have a nosey - not only was it not on Right Move, it wasn't visible on Foxtons' website unless you sign up, which I didn't do. The property is currently a pin on Foxtons' map but doesn't yet appear in the listings.

And another property with a Purple Bricks sign isn't showing on the PB website.

So maybe you need to register interest with local agents rather just browse online?

Around us (Telegraph Hill / Nunhead) agents keep properties on RM that sold months ago. Ours was never even down as sold but once we exchanged it was just nowhere to be seen on RM.

I've so far been contacted once about a property not yet on the market but I feel like I was used to add a bit of pressure / panic buying of people who went to see it after us. I was assured that it wasn't about the money but the right buyer. Expect then our offer was used against us!

It was a similar story last year when we were on the market as well as looking for somewhere to buy. We are selling in SE London and buying in another expensive part of the country. The stamp duty is ridiculous and we honestly wouldn't be bothering if we weren't making a major life move to relocate. We did contemplate waiting a few more years, but I can't really see it getting any better. The Government is looking for more ways to get money in the coffers so I don't see stamp duty changing anytime soon. You need to have a big reason to make it worth moving right now - relocating, divorcing, bursting at the seams due to expanding family in very small property, loss of income etc. We really struggled to find our onward purchase. We were expecting the struggle to be having to dart up and down the M1 every weekend. In fact, we only made about 3 trips as there was hardly anything to view.

I think the lack of listings is also related to people not getting the prices they assume their houses will command. Lots of people still with 2021-brain, thinking their house will fly off the shelf for an inflated price and planning their onward purchase accordingly. When they realise they won't get that much, they remove their property from the market or don't list at all rather than reduce their expectations.

The trouble with 'early viewings' is that 9/10 times they're wildly unsuitable (like houses not having a functional kitchen or bathroom when you've said you don't want to do major work). Looking at you KFH.