Houses aren’t selling

[pleasepackitin]

At least not in my area (Staffordshire) houses are sitting on the market for months, some a year ! And eventually reducing by quite alot.
We have recently gone on the market, had 5 viewings, another booked for this week, but I’m not feeling very hopeful. I think we’re priced reasonably and we are priced to sell. But I’m already getting anxiety because we’ve seen a house we love but cannot move forwards until we get a buyer!!
Anyone else in the same situation?

Reduced twice by 10k each time. The market is completely dead. It’s my parents house that they had built when they got married in 1961. It’s in good nick too. They both died within 16 months of each other, I’m a LO and live over 200 miles away. Stressful.

That sounds like a stressful situation for you to deal with. How large a percentage of the initial asking price is 10k? Tiny reductions are pretty pointless as buyers can easily offer 5% less if they want to. The reason the market if 'dead' is because asking prices are too high relative to what buyers can afford and confidence is falling in general.

Houses are selling quickly in Yorks

@rainingsnoring- well I asked 4 EAs to value it first and they all came out the same. So we started on 290k (they thought under 300k was the key) & we’re now on 270k.

@rainingsnoring- houses are not just not selling due to price at the moment. People don’t have the confidence to move & they are concerned about the Budget.

Any particular part of Yorkshire? My friend in Sheffield was telling me that the Sheffield market has slowed right down now, having been buoyant for a long term after other areas further South.

A family member missed out on a house very recently by being outbid, so some houses are moving. This was a house with huge potential at a great price.

The market is saturated with new builds here (N.Devon). They haven't even finished building most of them, and are already heavily reducing the completed ones. We hoped to sell next year, but not sure if we'll actually get a buyer.

We've just sold our house. Put on market start of Sept. Had 2 viewings and 2 offers but one wasn't really serious. House on for £220,000 sold for £210,000. The house we are buying has been on since start of August. Originally on for £340,000 then reduced and we are paying £325,000

I think the budget could be a factor. Stamp duty went back up again from April this year so not sure if that would also be a factor.

House on market, 12 viewings in 5 days, accepted +8% over asking offer in 9 days, had two offers, I think my house is 'difficult' (odd layout, huge/awkward garden which put many off). Perthshire/Stirling area. Seems anything OK under £500k sells like hotcakes, anything over takes a bit longer....

My brother and I have just sold an inherited house in South Yorkshire. It went on the market in April 2025 and we completed this week. We reduced the price by £10k and then accepted an offer for £2500 below the reduced asking price.

I live hundreds of miles away but luckily my brother lives locally and our Estate Agents were great. Our solicitors less so which is why it's taken so long to complete.

It's in a sought after area but hasn't been modernised since it was built in the late 1960s. We had quite a lot of viewings and an earlier offer which fell through due to the buyer lying about his access to funds.

The cost of paying another set of utility bills and double council tax (which we eventually successfully appealed) made me desperate to get rid of it so I was willing to keep dropping the price until it sold.

Not selling in my area (south east) , possibly due to all the new builds. Prices are crashing.

Are the developers offering deals or are some going bust?

Ours went on market (london) in July. Multiple viewings right away, lots of interested buyers and “they’re hoping to make an offer”. Has come to nothing. Many can’t sell their own properties, the ones who can are holding off for the budget. We have had a very low offer which we’ve accept reluctantly but if they mess us around we will take off market and try again in new year.

so yes, stagnant market and prices are wrong - our offer is around 2020 pricing…

According to someone in the know round here, developers are rowing back on what they’re building, laying off workers, offering incentives on houses already built and not developing land already purchased.

We’re in the SE and some people are still thinking of silly money. Some really good houses are still on the market after a year, despite reductions, so I don’t understand people over pricing for the current market.

Over-pricing of houses was the thing for so long that people need time to adjust to new market dynamics.

1961? Basically any offer you take still leaves you in profit?

Does anyone think that the lack of offers are sometimes due to the change in how to buy - e.g. having to be in a proceedable position (either sold, no chain, or at least on the market before you even get to view a house?). I had mine on last year (never sold a house before) and only had two viewings in nine months and put it on at the lowest valuation. Eventually took it off. I remember as a teen my parents went to view a house my mum had hankered after as a kid and had popped up on the market. Ours wasn’t, and after they saw it, realised they didn’t have the appetite for such an extreme refurb, and never even put ours on the market. They stayed in our family home until they died and never even mentioned moving again.

Does limiting who can view your house rule out all those “ooh that house is on the market” type impulsive buyers and therefore slow things down for sellers?

The laying off of workers will definitely be happening. Sales of new builds are way down. I've seen lots of reductions and not just in one part of the country. They don't like to reduce headline price and I've seen some homes reduced more than once. Clearly, they are getting no interest. That has a knock on effect on all those people who work in the sector.
I've been saying the same thing for some time as there have been countless properties in my area priced far too high (often 30%+) which are then slowly being reduced by 5 or 10%. I'm sure the owners are wondering why they aren't selling. It probably doesn't cross their minds how over priced they are. Even if so many sellers are greedy/delusional, you would have expected the agents to have caught on three years later!

I don't think it's that at all, sorry.
A lot of agents are letting anyone come and view because of a lack of interest. The rules may well still be stricter in areas where the market is actually moving still though.
If you only had 2 viewings in 9 months on the market, you were very over priced. If something is within 10 or 15% perhaps, but otherwise no glaring issues, you will at least get viewings. If something is extremely over priced, many buyers won't bother to waste their time viewing at all as they think the seller is in completely the wrong ball court.

I think a lot of agents were staying afloat with rentals and still valuing houses for sale high to get the business, the push back against mass immigration is going to affect rental big time, will agents now be forced to see sense on valuations?

Because people can’t afford to
move up at the ridiculous prices houses are being marketed for. The market is stagnant. Houses sit on right move for years until people drop the price significantly.

I think that's a v good point.
Interestingly, the mass deportations in the US are causing their rental markets to collapse in some areas and that then has a knock on effect on the house prices too, as houses fail to be an attractive investment.

"as houses fail to be an attractive investment."

Good point, a lot of it is sentiment, if the idea of "not enough houses" becomes "plenty of empty houses" then who is going to rush in to buy property? (smart investors were out some time ago I should think) This is one reason I think the notion of "Big Corp" bailing out all the landlords by taking over their portfolios is wishful at best, Big Corp is watching the political tides in the UK and won"t want to be saddled with thousands of un-lettable properties, they got caught out badly on commercial property, they won"t want to repeat that mistake.