How is the market at the moment?

[hollyblueivy]

is it a buyers or sellers market and what are the reasons for this? When will the market slow for Christmas and how do we maximise selling our home to upsize in another?

It depends where you are and the price bracket. Some areas are still selling, some are stagnating. You need to look at the area you’re in, see how long properties are on the market and what those similar to yours are selling for.

If you decide to list it, you need to make sure your home is as good as you can make it. Clean, tidy, clutter free and with kerb appeal.

I think it’s really area dependent. Our very small search area is still very much a sellers market. Just down the road I can see that the market has really slowed down and am starting to see small reductions.

Buyers market round our way. Very nice houses lingering for months and months and being reduced or changing agents and coming back on with different photos. Great if you don’t have your own house to sell in a similar area. Frustrating otherwise.

Buyers’, but not as much so as last year. SE London.

Flats - Loads of ex-rentals coming to market and pushing prices down, hanging around unsold with big reductions as the LL just wants rid of them.

Houses - much less stock, so prices creeping up a bit, but also no buyers, so just sort of stagnant.

how do we maximise selling our home to upsize in another?

I don’t think you can have your cake and eat it OP!

Depends on the area. We bought last year and it was very much a buyers market. We had our pick of several houses, most of which had been stuck on the market for weeks/months.

This year any similar houses that come on the market are flying off the shelf very quickly,

Thanks I thought this was the case but we have only ever bought and never sold so wasn’t sure if I was missing something!

South west / south east border ish

Notwithstanding what the market is like generally, upsizing is quite a good place to be at the moment. So maybe look at it more from the perspective of 'getting under offer' with a sensible offer, and then haggling hard on your onwards purchase.

People avoiding flats, and downsizers have led to a logjam in the middle of the market at the moment, but flats and larger houses are stagnating (generally, really depends on area and even road).

We are in a similar geographical area op. In Bournemouth and Poole the market is only moving for houses that are carefully priced (ie lower than last few years). Anything decent and priced right like this goes quickly - but the majority of sellers are not having success. Loads of homes slowly reducing prices and sticking on the market. Same around Southampton according to a colleague.

We bought our cottage (coastal West Sussex) a year ago, having relocated back home from Wales where we'd lived for 6.5 years.

The market then was generally slightly less stagnant imo, with the older period houses we were looking at selling fairly quickly. Although in our part of West Sussex there seemed to be less on the market then than there is now.

In Wales (rural Carmarthenshire) the market last year was slow - but I think in rural areas that's often the case (with the exception of during covid!) Despite having a very desirable (if a bit niche!), fully renovated property in the middle price bracket, it took us six months to find a buyer with only a handful of viewings during that time.

Looking at our old area now, it seems much worse with loads of reductions/virtually zero sales, except at the very bottom end.

Here in coastal West Sussex I've been monitoring the market as we might move again once our project is finished. Very little of the type we'd be interested in (characterful cottages) is shifting - there are two period cottages vaguely similar to ours for sale in the next street, both of which seem overpriced. They have both been on the market a few months.

My OH happens to be working opposite them and reports that one has had 1 viewing, the other 4 - obviously he might have missed some, lol, but last year they'd have been snapped up in a week or two. The only sale in our road (a newer build) over the past 12 months sold very quickly as it was priced to sell. Two similar newish builds in the road were removed from the market - one last sold in 2022 for 425k and had recently been dropped to 360k before being withdrawn.

Out of curiosity, I've also looked specifically at the higher and lower ends of the market in the wider area and have found -

Houses (including bungalows, but not flats) for sale between 1m and 8m - 64, of which 15 are SSTC. Of those listed during the past month, 2 have gone under offer.

Houses (including bungalows, but not flats) for sale up to 350k - 358, of which 212 are SSTC. Of those listed during the past month, 0 have gone under offer.

There are loads of reductions here every day across all price brackets.

If you use the Area360 add in for RM (google it), it includes an Area Profile button (bottom right hand corner) . Click on that and you will see how the local market for different home types is performing (10 year price trend). I'm a little worried that prices are increasing in many areas!

3 houses have been for sale on my road this year. 1 priced low sold instantly (same day) for asking. 1 priced sensibly sold in 6 weeks for 2% under asking. 1 priced high has had to reduce by £125K so far (went on in March) and still not moving. I honestly think they have cost themselves £50K+ by pricing so high to begin with. Location: Worcestershire.

So my view (taking into account wider local area on RM) is market is moving, but only if the house is keenly priced. Otherwise, you're not selling.

Most definitely a buyers market where I am. I am in a small rural village where we currently have 13 houses for sale. The owners are mainly older and looking to downsize and move somewhere closer to amenities. Whether these properties were overvalued at the outset but some have now dropped by 20-25% and been on the market for 12 months or more. I feel for some of the elderly owners who are thinking that they need to practically give their homes away in order to move on to somewhere smaller and more
practical for their twilight years.