Anyone struggling to sell their property?

[Tblock1800]

Just wondering if anyone else is having trouble selling their property and for how long you have been on the market. We have been on the market a good 4 months now and whilst have had viewings and in general pretty decent feedback, so far we have had zero offers on our place. Before anyone mentions the price, we dropped the price of the property by 10k last month and our current price definitely reflects the market value for what other properties of similar nature in our area and due to budget, no chance we can go any lower than this.

I honestly think for us at the moment, apartments are harder to sell. There isn’t a huge demand for them like houses, so we’re in a bit of a predicament where we have a lovely place but just can’t seem to shift it.

The advertisement pictures and advert in general are very good. It’s a decent sized 2 bedroom former new build apartment, lovely balcony common views, 2 double bedrooms, allocated parking and close to all amenities etc. We are looking to upgrade to a 3 bedroom house in the same area

Just incredibly frustrating as we want to upgrade and get a bigger home, have a mortgage in principle ready to port our mortgage with current lender but because we’re currently not under offer, have no real power to be offering for houses we like as nobody takes you serious until your proceedable. Anyone else in the same position? If not, was you in this position where it took you ages to sell?

I think you went on the market at a bad time, so now it’s been listed for so long it’s off putting and looks like there’s something wrong with it. It also wasn’t great to put it on and then reduce by so much.

The market, certainly in this area, starts getting real interest from mid March onwards. Is it worth taking it off the market, having a freshen up and then re listing with a new agent?

I think you could be right. It’s something we’re considering if we haven’t sold by June. Taking it off market completely and re listing . Also, you’re correct it’s a bit of a shitty market these months. We’re hoping from now onwards with weather getting better, we should hopefully get more viewings

Selling apartments is really hard post Grenfell - what's the situation with your apartment and cladding? There is a lot of new regulation coming through surrounding fire doors now and mortgage companies are really twitchy and (overly) cautious about lending on apartments

Also what's the service charge? Not much you can do but for many it's as much if not more than council tax and it's a big extra cost

My family's apartment has been on the market for a similar amount of time and the market is very slow

Did my research on other apartments in our area vicinity and our service charge is one of the lower ones. Our lease is pretty decent too. I think you’re right, we just need to be patient and hopefully the right buyer comes along. Very frustrating though

Are you price comparators those that are also on the market, or those that have successfully sold (bearing in mind they may have gone for lower than the marketing price which it went 'Sold STC').

Can't really comment without more information.

Are there lots of flats for sale similar to yours? Does yours stand out against the competition?

to answer the questions. Yes, our flat is definitely competitive to whats on market and sold, but obviously i don’t know the exact amount others have sold for. Wether they went for asking price or lower as EA’s don’t usually disclose this. What i will say is there are quite a few apartments in the area that also haven’t sold so it isn’t just ours. Without sounding too biased, i think ours is probably the nicest one on the market in the area in the price range of others similar. I just think right now certainly in our area apartments are difficult to sell. Just got to persevere i suppose and be patient

You can view sold prices on Rightmove, Zoopla etc. Sold prices are what matter - many properties are going for quite a bit below asking price right now.

I don't think you answered the question by the PP regarding cladding / type of block. There are lots of hoops to jump through right now with regard to flats. If your building has cladding (not always visible), is over a certain height, doesn't comply with fire regs or has a certificate from TriFire, you may find you wait longer to find a buyer.

As someone else suggested, you didn't pick a great time to list. Consider taking it off the market for a bit and then go on with a new agent to get a fresh Rightmove listing (make sure marketing history can't be tracked by Chrome plugins).

When you do sell, get a good solicitor who is responsive to requests and gets all the required documentation from the management company early on. There's lots that can delay purchases of leasehold flats so try to get ahead where possible.

For comparison OP - properties for sale that I know about: house in central London - been on the market for one year - one offer 20% below listing price, rejected; two vv expensive houses in Home counties - on market for one year - no interest; One average priced house in Home Counties, good state school catchment - on market for one year - just had offer 8% below listing price (accepted); One slightly above average priced house, no interest;
Essentially the market has stopped.
Anecdotally I know a lot of people who are leaving the country, so fewer buyers around.

Hi, our building is no bigger then 3 stories. It only has 2 floors. It’s a small apartment complex and not a large tower block, so to answer the question no it doesn’t have cladding as i checked the online checker on government website. Thanks for the advice though. Will look at re listing it if it doesn’t sell by June

Exactly. Right pain in the ass, but it’s reassuring in a sense that it’s not our place in particular that’s struggling but a few apartments in our area have struggled to sell. We will sell eventually, but just getting a bit impatient with it

@Tblock1800 “we just need to be patient and hopefully the right buyer comes along.”

You mean be patient and hope ‘a’ buyer comes along?

Yeh buyer. I just mean whoever wants to buy our property will be the right buyer as they will obviously fall in love with it and offer.

'Before anyone mentions the price, we dropped the price of the property by 10k last month and our current price definitely reflects the market value for what other properties of similar nature in our area and due to budget, no chance we can go any lower than this.'

'our current price definitely reflects the market value for what other properties of similar nature in our area'.

So it was overpriced to begin with?

And you waited 3 months to drop the price?

And you absolutely wont go any lower?

Honestly, dropping the price might refresh it but anyone looking to buy will you have been on since last year without selling and offer under. Its not been priced well and clearly no ones dream house at this price and now its sat for months on market it has devalued more in the eyes of buyers so if you can't/won't accept that if you are lucky to get an offer it will likely be under asking then I doubt you will sell.

Well yeh i don’t think it’s out of the ordinary personally keeping a property on market for a couple of months before putting the price down. We got the viewings and decent feedback so it wasn’t like people were put off with the price and we were getting no interest. We waited a couple of months and when we felt nothing was materialising, we dropped the price last month.

No, it wasn’t over priced as we got it valued by 2 EA’s for it and the exact same property in our block sold for the same price only 4 months prior to us going on the market so the price we originally had was the correct value. We don’t have the budget to putting the price down further. I think if it doesn’t sell, our best bet is to come off the market a few months then come on fresh again with a complete new listing.

Well a property is only worth what the market will pay. If it isn't selling it is over priced, simple as that. Flats are selling near me, when priced right. Ultimately, the downturn in the market has started and someone will eventually blink first, reduce their price and set the new benchmark for what is market value. If you want to shift your flat then that will have to be you. That's hard to hear I know, but that's reality. I'm hearing from lots of people in different cities that they can't sell at 'market rate'. That means a downward shift. That should mean houses reduce locally to you soon too, so you'll hopefully be able to balance the books that way

I think historic prices are not much use recently. I know of two houses, one London and one SE ( in my road) which have sold quite quickly in the last month but both were priced slightly lower than I’d have expected ie realistically for the new market conditions. So say 775000, rather than 800000 - and they’ve probably accepted 760000.

There are still buyers out there but they’re looking for a keen price and prices from even 4 months ago are no longer relevant. And now the stamp duty bonus has gone, this will affect the lower end of the market even more.

There’s no guarantee that if you take it off and relist it in June, prices won’t be even lower.

Places will sell if the price is right.

A 10K drop is a significant % of a 100K flat.

Of a 500K one it's a miniscule change hardly worth bothering with.

It's a tough market out there. Mortgage rates are remaining sticky and there are a lot of negative vibes in employment (think of things such as Labours plan to reform the civil service) and taxation (where is all that extra defence spending going to come from).

If you switch agents you don't need a break to get a new listing on Rightmove. If your convinced price isn't the issue, I'd switch agents and get a fresh listing.

You need a fresh listing I'm afraid. Your 4-month listing now looks stale and you are about to get a heap more competition as spring listings start to appear. They will get all the attention and people will overlook your property as it will be way down the search results and folk will wonder if there's something wrong with it. That's just how it works. I would serve notice on your current agent and get it re-listed at the start of April with a new agent. Keep it at the same price if you are convinced it's at the correct level. If you've got the price right, it will sell.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether you need a sale or whether you are happy to take it off and stay put if it doesn't move. You will compete with those who have an incentive to move though and are prepared to price a bit lower to get a deal done. Believe me, we learned the hard way last year and we have a house in London. We reduced by 7% to achieve a sale, despite 3 agents all valuing us at a similar price.

Don’t forget the change to the cost of stamp duty, which may affect your flat depending on its value. I actually don’t think you did have it on at the wrong time of year given that people were keen to complete property transactions before the spring. It’s hard to comment on the price, but it may be that there is a downward trend. This isn’t actually a bad thing when you are upsizing, so don’t get too caught up on not being able to take a lower price.

I think most buyers are holding out to try and afford a house rather than a flat. Houses seem to be dropping in price steadily & lower offers are being accepted often too

No one knows the value of a property. EA's can only suggest a marketing price and then the market will value the property for you whether that be higher or lower than proposed.

I'd take it off the market and give it a few months for the stamp duty changes to bed in.

Use houseprices.io to keep track of registered prices, and the Area360 extension for RM on Chrome to see if anything else may be impacting interest and hence possible value.

Thanks for responses. Think will wait until end of spring, then take off market if it hasn’t had any movement.

Judging by the number of threads on here recently, never mind the amount of reductions on Rightmove, a lot of people are struggling to sell their homes!

I don't think you have mentioned the approx value of your flat. What percentage is the 10k cut? If you are hoping for 4 or 500,000, 10k is a pointless cut. If the asking price is 100k, it's a significant cut. I do think that flats have been much harder to sell in recent years and in many parts of London, they have fallen in value a lot since 2016. We now have a situation where the SDLT is about to rise, increase potential buyer's costs. This will tend to reduce sales and prices at the lower end particularly. It may be, therefore, that the prices has fallen in the last 8 months since the previous sale in your building.
I expect you don't want to post a link here for advice but could you ask a friend or two to look at the photos, pricing and give you some advice?