Why hasn't it sold?

[TooManyAnimals94]

Been on the market 2 years! Shared ownership available. Had a cash buyer but unfortunately the HA who own the other half made admin so awful and slow she pulled out. That was 8 months ago, no bites since.

On my third estate agent. Viewings are few and far between (a lot of no shows) and often feedback is they like it but there is a large office building opposite in need of new ownership and it puts people off.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163116008?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

I am absolutely desperate to sell. The mortgage and service charge have gone up significantly this year and I'm really struggling every month, even claiming what I'm entitled to as a low earner.

Moved in with ex husband 7 years ago. He left 3 years ago and we can't get divorced until it sells because neither of us can afford to buy the other out and I can't afford solicitors fees until it's sold.

Any advice please.

It looks overpriced tbh

Nearly double its 2018 price!

Overpriced

whats in the cage in the bedroom? That might put people with allergies off.

In 2018 you bought it for £130k - and it’s now worth £250k. Is that correct or is it some shared ownership blip?

I’d not consider a property with a 79 year lease.

The lease is too short. You need to extend it.

I searched for 2 bedrooms in your town, and there were 92 listings. I can see that you’re near the bottom of the pricing for that group, but still - I think there’s a total glut on the market,

Quite clearly it’s a first time buyer kind of place - as a flat I like it very much. How many singles or couples in your area earn £75k to be able to borrow enough to buy it?

Consider an auction maybe (I don’t know anything about that market.

Bought 45% of it for £130k so its actuallygone down in value. There should be a separate listing for the shared ownership price. I'm actually going to speak to the EA tomorrow about that because it doesn't show up properly.

Can't afford to extend the lease unless it's done during the sales process.

Yes there is a dog crate in the bedroom...no I will not be getting rid of the dog to attract buyers.

Overpriced? I just searched properties under 250 in my town and most are only one bedroom.

Auction companies won't touch shared ownership properties...already tried and they couldn't get me off the phone quick enough.

Council tax band D for a 2 bed flat? That would put me off straight away!

It isn't necessarily the price

ANNUAL SERVICE CHARGE
£3528

LENGTH OF LEASE
79 years left

This is the problem. Properties with less than a hundred years left, if the lease are generally unmortgageable

The service charge is too high. £300 a month service charge on top of a mortgage on top of council tax on top of bills for a flat with less than a hundred years on the lease?!

The flat is a first time buyer property, but the maintenance charge is £300 a month, people buying a starter flat are unlikely to be able to afford/be willing to pay that much a month on a service charge. That will put most people off. The lease is also an issue as it’s too short.

I think the flat looks a bit tired inside. If I had 92 others to choose from I wouldn't look at yours first. Sorry. I

know it's yours home. If someone looked at photos of mine right now they would move straight on to a better one so I'm not judging. But you've got a lot of competition so you really need kerb appeal.

At the least straighten up the bedding. Clear some of the clutter from the kitchen for the photos.

Is the "private patio" just the few slabs outside the back door? It's not clear how much is private and if you could put some garden furniture out?

I can't do anything about the service charge and would be very difficult to afford the lease increase.
To put it bluntly, my ex left when I was still on maternity pay, contributes the bare minimum and has a load of debt
I don't have much debt but I have no savings. It costs about 6k to renew the lease and I simply do not have it.

That’s a crazy high service charge for outside London.

This is exactly the sort of trap that the leasehold reform should be eradicating.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/leasehold-reform-in-england-and-wales/

That’s understandable, but you asked why it’s not selling and this will be why unfortunately.

Ok, I totally understand that, but in answer to your question, those are two reasons that I would not under any circumstances buy that flat. So that possibly answers your question as to why the flat isn't selling.

So if you can't extend the lease, it's going to remain unsold because most banks won't lend for anything less than a hundred years left on the lease.

Maybe I should have asked a slightly different question then. What the fuck do I do??
It's hard to explain to people who've never had a shared ownership property but it really is the worst od all worlds and I wish we had never bought it.

I've looked into voluntary repossession but that can still land you with legal costs.

There's currently a mix up with my UC which is taking ages to resolve so I'm.in arrears on the rent.

It's all just hideous.

I do take on board comments about photos etc. There are definitely others that look smarter than mine but again, I'm on my own. I clean and tidy as best I can for photos and viewings but there's always going to be clutter with a 4 Yr old around and I don't have much time for redecorating 😔

Well, I'm really sorry you're going through this. And that you've learned the hard way.

There are also no circumstances in which I would ever buy a shared ownership property.

I've grilled the estate agents on the lease and they're very blasé about it, saying that they've sold places with shorter but my research suggests the same as the replies here that it's a problem.

How many of the flats in your block are shared ownership / fully bought ?

who is the shared ownership with - the builder ? or a social housing provider

what % of shared ownership is available ? is it 50% less or more ?

how much is the rent ?

what does the service charge actually cover - buildings insurance ? communal lighting ? gardening for communal areas ? maintenance of the ' private ' playground ? window cleaning ?

There is so much information missing re the shared ownership - including the detail that there is shared ownership available.

the lease/fee issue aside.
I don't see a photo of the entry way as the rest of the home seems to suffer from storage issues, i would want to see the front entry closet. maybe even the shared lobby.
In the kitchen there is an upper cabinet with no door?? if there never was a door and was meant for ornamental display please tidy that up or get the door reinstalled.
I don't need to see your laundry in the washing machine, or the laundry hamper in the dog crate, the under bed bins screams zero storage space and the weird placement of the shower curtain..no need for that.
I would start with a presentation plan and call the photographer back. Even if you need to move the stuff from room to room while he photo's. Look at the photo's before he leaves and if you spot stuff out of place/poor lighting move it and retake the photo's then and there.

start the photo's in the hall, the entry, then the living room and kitchen the way you would physically walk through.
wash the deck and yes have some flowers in the pots.
do you have family nearby that can help with storage or potentially lend you some furniture to "stage" the rooms with dressers and wardrobes?

If it's unmortgageable you need to drop the price by 25%

I apologise, I see you have already said it's a Housing Association.

Knowing that i would now ask,
how many properties are just rented i.e. social housing tenants and how many are shared ownership

and are any actually fully privately owned ( I guess with a mortgage )

Is there an issue with the lease being under 80 years and then to renew you’d owe the freeholder 50% of any value gain on the property? We need someone who understands this to come along. This is much more complex potentially than it not selling…

You're referring to "marriage value", that is the increase in what a property becomes worth following a lease extention, as opposed to what it's worth now.

To the lay-person like me, it is complicated, but to the people who's job it is to sort it all out, it really isn't. Added to which, whilst a longer lease will make this property more sale-able (mortgage companies get twitchy when there's less than 80 years left), I doubt it will add much to the value of it (given the very high service charge and the council tax banding, it's going to take a lot to make it worth more), so the marriage value point may not come into it.

However, you only have to google "leasehold reform act" to see there are a great many changes going through right now, some of which will take a few years, and all of it for the better, so I can well understand why a buyer might want to steer clear of anything to do with lease extensions unless the seller has already sorted it, as the buyer will get a better deal on the lease if / when the changes become official. Right now is not the time to be extending a lease if you're the party who doesn't have to.

Given the choice, there is no way I'd ever buy a property where the lease had not been extended as I wouldn't want the aggravation. I have bought two leasehold flats in the last 15 years and I didn't look at anything where an extention had not already been given.

Whilst I don't know Leatherhead at all, on the surface this flat doesn't look to be the best investment going, and I am so sorry for the OP that she feels she's backed into a corner.

However, while the photographs look like the place is very clean, it could do with a tidy up, and that door needs to go back on the washing machine as it screams of somewhere that hasn't been maintained.

I'd also like to know who the target market is, because unless it's people with children, there's no way I'd be mentioning in the sales particulars that it has child-friendly gardens and a playground - a lot of people buy flats to escape small people.