Flat not selling. Advice needed.

[Tiff1378]

Has anyone got any advice re selling a 2 bed flat with a large balcony. We currently live in a new build and want to move after 8 years, but are struggling. We are in a small block of flats and have one of the penthouses. Our neighbours put there’s on in January which spured us into action but I waited until early March. They sold within 3 weeks so we thought we’d have a similar experience. However despite 11 viewings and 1 offer, which wasn’t genuine, we still haven’t sold. Our flat is on for less than the other penthouse and for the same price that we purchased it. It is part cladded but not with dangerous cladding. We get lots of positive feedback about the flat being spacious, light and well presented so I’m not sure where we are going wrong. I’m so despondent over the whole thing and ready to give up. Any advice on how to move forward would be greatly appreciated ☺️

Please advise on how to sell our flat.

Might we have a link then we can be more informed?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/158763626#/?channel=RES_BUY

It looks nice! What's the service charge?

If I were looking to buy this flat, I'd want to know about service charge and whether there's a lift as you appear to be on the 3rd floor?

The service charge is on the listing, £1680 a year and £300 ground rent

Lots to like - space, balcony etc, but for me, not enough photos ( and a couple are "lifestyle" ones).
I'd like to see it softened up. It doesn't feel much like a home. The balcony is bare (plants?) and makes for a view of a wall from inside. The seating looks uninviting ( I know that's the style) but it's not saying "come home and relax".

What did the other flat sell for? What does it look like, there doesn't seem to be a (old) listing for it.

Does it back onto a car yard?

Lovely flat.

The only things I can think of are price and the fact that the kitchen isn't separate. It must be pretty noisy in the living area when the washing machine is spinning.

The service charge would put me off. Who runs the management company? How long is the remaining lease?

Are there any major developments going on nearby?

Lovely flat but I’d think that the views were bad as there are no photos of them.

There’s only one photo of the ‘wrap around roof terrace’ and it only shows part of it - ie it just looks like any other flat with a small balcony.

The listing looks good and it's lovely and sunny.
Unfortunately, I think you will need to reduce the price if it isn't getting much interest. I think you may have overpaid back in 2017. If you look at the most recent sale, they sold for less than they purchased their flat for in 2017. Can you reduce to 260k?

The flat looks nice and the listing seems fine. Only thing that strikes me is that there's a few houses on around there for 300k-325k so maybe people are stretching themselves to get a house that's freehold and more futureproof, now that moving is so costly and people don't want to do it more than necessary. If you're desperate to sell, the only thing you can really do is drop the price. No matter that others are on for similar and others have sold, if yours isn't selling, then the price isn't right for what the market wants right now. Especially when you factor in service charges, people are just more cautious to get a flat. And calling it penthouse doesn't really make it anything other than a regular top-floor flat with a balcony in an okay area. It's nice but nothing luxurious.

I would be put off by the fact that the kitchen is in the sitting room and it's leasehold but you don't appear to own a share of the freehold.

A quick look at rightmove tells me you have a lot of competition in East Grinstead with 2 bedroom flats starting at £240k. Some won't have the service charge that yours has.

Did you overpay in 2017?

I do think you could make more of the balcony to showcase it as a feature as well.

• Floor plan has no total square footage and says ground floor.

• no pictures of views

• Balcony pics are lame. Get better ones. Also Can you actually sit on the terrace it looks like a corridor?

If there's room for table and chairs you might do well to stage it as such you can geta set relatively cheaply.
I think you should also may try and make it more of a feature. A big tree in a pot would be better and then postion the small pot plants in front to create a bit more greenery.
some baskets also wouldn't go amiss.

I think you need to stagethe balcony / terrace

Sorry, I don't think the listing is good at all. Some of the photos are just bizarre.

These photos are 'normal' house-selling photos (even if some are not perfect) - 1,2,4,7,8,9,10

But 3 - so weird. You go from normal pictures to suddenly a portrait one, and it only shows a tiny bit of the balcony. I actually stared at it for a while and wondered if it was deliberately not landscape as there are things left and right that you don't want me to see. Like, is the view really bad?

And weird that there aren't more photos of the balcony. I'd want to see how it could be used - can you fit a table and chairs out there? Sun lounger? Etc.

And pictures 5 and 6 are weird 'lifestyle' photos. I'm not a huge fan of those generally, but if you are going to have them, then you need to make sure they're purely extras and there are enough 'proper' photos of everything else. So only 8 photos of your property? Doesn't feel enough, sorry.

The lease would put me off..only 117 years

Did the other 1 that sold have a longer lease

Google maps needs updating, it’s still the old church building from what I can see. What’s the feedback from the EA? They need to be earning their commission.

Hi thank you for all your opinions they are so helpful. I have questioned the EA photos as I agree that some are random so I will talk to them again about those. I have also suggested better balcony ones as it’s actually quite wide but you can’t appreciate that from the photos. In terms of furniture I agree that the sofa isn’t great but we don’t want to buy a new one until we move. The flat next door sold for £277,000 in the end. I have thought of dropping the price but we couldn’t afford to go below £270,000 at the moment.

In terms of the lease next door is the same, plus they had a doubling ground rent which we thankfully had changed.

Also no major developments nearby.

Agree with others that more should be done with the balcony pictures.
Bedroom photos look fine, not overly keen on the furniture layout in the living area, being honest I think the pine book cases look a bit out of place in particular, maybe it could with a rethink, great flat though, I’m sure it’ll sell.