Is the property market for selling better than last year?

[rubberduck68]

Hi, so I did try and sell last year and got so few viewings that I gave up. Anyone out there in a similar position would say it's any better this year?

I think the property market has generally slowed down massively since the peak in 2022. Some areas are moving quickly for certain types of property, others barely at all. However, if you list at a realistic price, your home will sell. Many sellers have been making the mistake of listing their home at a price much higher than the market will pay and then wondering why they are having little interest.

No.

I think @rainingsnoring is spot on. The market is very localised but you need to price realistically. We learned the hard way last year but got there eventually. Also, it's very hard to say at this time of year as we haven't hit the spring yet. There has been quite a bit of activity from people trying to hit the stamp duty deadline so recent data might look a bit skewed. I wouldn't expect a big boost though - the economic climate, uncertainty in the job market, high stamp duty thresholds will no doubt put paid to that. Sell if you have a pressing reason to do so; otherwise I'd stay put for now.

Not where I am, no. Houses don't seem to be shifting. One near us has after dropping by quite a substantial amount and more than a year of being on the market, but many seem to be over optimistic on asking price.

Yes and no. Where we are (Berkshire) 3 and 4 bed houses seem to be selling well. Anything bigger is hardly moving and the price of 2 bed flats is dropping as most towns are already over supplied with them yet developers still want to build/convert them.

As you say, the economic climate doesn't exactly look rosy, nor is it like to change in terms of fundamentals any time soon.
Hope much do you actually need to move @rubberduck68? I would just get on with it if I were you as I can't see things radically improving. I do think that rates will go down but that's only because I suspect we will have much worse economic conditions by the end of the year.

Spring may be a better time to list than when you listed last year @rubberduck68 (especially if you listed in winter 24) but the market seems just as stagnant in most areas.

At least you have the advantage of knowing now that the price you listed at last time was too high to attract many viewings.

If you need to move house then I would list at a lower price this time and hope that the better weather/garden looking better (if you have one) will encourage more viewings this time.

I don't need to. Would like to as will be empty nest from late in the summer and have been hoping to move out of the area I'm in but last two years failed to sell even with ridiculously low pricing. Worried that if I put it on again and it doesn't sell, it will look like there is something wrong with the house, which isn't true at all. I had five valuations in last time and picked the middle one?

Take the lowest valuation and then reduce by 10 percent more.
If you really want to sell.

I think it’s very variable across the country. Where I live it’s very slow but 12 miles away where family member lives 4 bedroom modern houses that have been on the market for 6 months have suddenly all just sold, I remember it being like this in the 1990’s. It was 1 step forward and 2 steps back. Here’s hoping that. Prices just continue to stabilise and not rise so they become more affordable. It’s just pure greed to want price rises as there has been.

What makes you say that the pricing was 'ridiculously low' even though you got barely any interest? If the price was a bargain, you would have had masses of interest and multiple offers. It sounds as if there is a large gap between what you think your home is worth and what it is likely to really be worth, ie what a buyer will pay. Sellers being unrealistic seems to be a common problem at present, as per the comments on this thread and the fact that lots of sellers are struggling to sell.
If you don't need to move, I guess you need to weigh up the positives of the move, despite the fact that your house isn't very likely to achieve the figure you have in your head, vs whether you think the market is likely to rise over whatever period you are happy to wait.

You know there isn't anything much wrong with your house so really, it can only be that the EAs valued it too high for the market. That isn't your fault, it's a common thing they do to try and win new business but it's hard for sellers to know about their tactics unless they are really following the property market.

It may also be that there is something a little off putting about your property, it may just be that it hasn't been decorated or updated recently, for example. That will affect how many viewings you get as it's a buyers market at the moment so they can be fussy. In this sort of market you need to present your house & garden as well as you possibly can.

My experience was that there was a difference between pricing from the small independents to the bigger local chain EAs. I wish I'd gone with a smaller indie but I was afraid to as I thought going with a well-established company who had been in the area for decades was safer. In reality, they priced too high and then just kept knocking down the price until we found the sweet spot. So we just ended up wasting a lot of time where if we'd gone for the lowest valuation from the start, we'd have probably sold much quicker. It sounds like you are in a slow moving area, so I don't think you have much choice if you want to move.

As PP said, is your home recently refurbished and modern? Whilst people will be happy to paint and change carpets, bathrooms and kitchens are expensive and a lot of buyers are wanting these things to be already done or at least no more than one thing that needs doing. If you don't have an open plan kitchen / diner, ensuites, downstairs loos, expect to be overlooked for properties that do.

We eventually sold last year after reducing despite the estate agent constantly reassuring us that the price was not the problem. A few years ago properties were flying off the shelves but the market has changed significantly.

In my area the market is currently quite slow and limited. We intend to list our property in the next few weeks (a 3 bed end-terrace, in an area which lacks many starter homes), which we hope will sell fairly quickly. I’m more concerned about the current lack of choice available to us, as there aren’t many larger properties available in our chosen area, and the ones that are require a significant amount of work.

Market is pretty slow in our area, I think the stamp duty changes have stopped a lot of people from moving unnecessarily. Unless your house is attractively priced to first time buyers you might struggle.

Check the data and anecdotes for your area. They are all different!

https://www.rics.org/content/dam/ricsglobal/documents/market-surveys/uk-residential-market-survey/2_WEB_February_2025_RICS_UK_Residential_Market_Survey_tp.pdf

I'd say it's pretty slow. All the houses local to me have reduced several times and are taking some months to sell, and my sister in London is saying the same.

Yes, I'm feeling the same. Not really seeing a usual Spring rush of properties coming on at all to look at....

I did reduce twice in the end but had hardly any interest. The trouble was that I was prepared to go lower for the right buyer, but everything I liked was sticking at high prices; and you can't sell if you've nothing to move to. I found it was the sellers I wanted to buy from who refused to be realistic that was stalling everything, and I wasn't one of them.

Houses are selling, but prices have dropped significantly.

Housing market to me is dead.

We had a 12 year bull run of increasing prices from 2010 to 2022.

When interest rate rises hit prices have been sticky because a lot of people these days are on fixes. It's only when a lot of people come off the fixes they realise their ability to raise money is significantly reduced.

Time began to run out after the budget last year. Reeves changing stamp duty has put a last gasp into the market with people trying to beat the deadline. But after that there is nothing. The economy is going down with both the government and private sector announcing significant job losses and money being squeezed out of benefits and the NICS increases putting a brake on pay rises. Landlords are selling up adding to the supply because the government is increasingly legislating against them. There doesn't seem to be any clear direction for interest rates at the moment. All this leads to less money available for mortgages.

I don't think you have chased the market down here as much as chased the economy down.There are probably some micromarkets where things are going well, but the overall trend to me is down.

You say your place was "ridiculously priced" previously but if it was someone would have bought it. People want houses, it's just that they can't afford to pay the prices that people expect for them currently.

Harsh ? Maybe. But hopefully there are things to think about here and at least you do still have a decent place to live, which is more than a lot of people have.

Yes I hear you about "ridiculously low" but we did have one buyer offering at £100,000 less than we'd had it on the year before, which we accepted, and that is a significant reduction in any market. Also we had a RICS survey to get ahead of any issues (it's very old) and their valuation came back much higher than what we had it on for, and in person on the day the surveyor said our market price was "ridiculously low"! The buyer pulled out for personal reasons. Our issue was that the places we wanted to go to had owners that refused to reduce their high prices. No-one wants to sell low and buy high. For it to work everyone has to get in the trench together!

If you are willing to accept an offer 100K lower why not price it at that in the first place ?

Yes a 100k discount is big. But not if the property is well overpriced to begin with.

The fact that you discounted 100K indicates to me the property is large and high priced. You mention it is old - this causes additional headwinds.

A lot of people are now becoming really wary of investing in old large properties because the energy bills can be enormous. Maintenance bills have been going up hugely too and the cost of any building work to listed properties is becoming very expensive.

Very old, large buildings are a very specialist marketplace, so they can be troublesome to both value and find a buyer for.

I agree. I've seen properties we looked at last year still up for sale.
There is still a resistance from some sellers to accept the current housing market but if pricing is right, it will sell as people will always need to move for various reasons. We found a buyer for our old house (which I hated) and were in a good position to negotiate on our new place. I also think the higher costs of renovation means people are cautious about offering too much. We lost out on paper financially but are in our forever home which we love. It depends on individual circumstances whether you are prepared to hang on until the market starts picking up