Properties on for £800k+ not selling? Why?

[MuckyBrass]

Near me, there are loads of houses on Rightmove for around £800k, £900k, even up to £1m ish which have sat on the market for a year or two. I've long been desperate to move to a bigger house so I check Rightmove all the time, but my budget is more like £600k so I've never viewed any of them, and really I'm just being nosy. They are all lovely houses, I'd buy any of them in a heartbeat if they were on for £600k. I don't understand. Are they really for sale? Or are they just sitting on Rightmove as pretty houses to make the estate agents's rosters look good? Some of them have had their prices reduced by £100k or even more at various points, but they're still evidently not selling at the £800k plus mark.

I'm in a small (but fairly naice) market town with no train station, not an easy commute to any major city, so I actually struggle to think who would be earning enough or have the cash around here to be the actual buyers for houses in that price bracket anyway. We're not talking loads of land, either. These are normal town houses, period properties mostly, small gardens, 4-6 bedrooms.

Try Silver. Everyone should have some exposure to precious metals in their well diversified investment or pension portfolios.

Oh yes - so true! We've got two lots of elderly neighbours who think the same. Both their houses have been on the market for a few years and every time they reduce the asking price (by stupidly small amounts like £10k when in reality it needs to be more like £150k), both lots whinge and moan endlessly that they've just "lost" another £10k. These are houses being advertised at £600-£700k that they bought for £30k back in the 80s! Yet they still have the demented mindset that they're "losing" money. Utterly insane. The last time we spoke to one of them, they were belly-aching that they couldn't afford a cruise this year as they'd "lost another £10k". The mental gymnastics are unbelievable!

I have been trying to convince my DH of this. Property is just not the good investment it used to be. I have made much more on interest and equity growth since I started investing but he just can’t get his head round it as he was brought up with the belief that property was the only asset worth investing in. For a long time he was right but not any more.

Agreed but this is a much more volatile proposition that most people would not be able to cope with as growth like this some with significant risks. Not like property at all.

Be careful on tech investments right now.

Three years tops I fear.

Try your luck, Op.
Offer to buy some that you like for 150-200 less than advertised.
One or two sellers might really need to sell.

Owner occupied property is not an investment - it's a home. Other property is typically a very poor investment given how illiquid it is and - usually - large proportion of one's wealth.

Precious metals, on the other hand, when held as part of a well diversified portfolio of equities and gilts, reduces overall volatility and stabilises healthy above inflation returns. See Golden Butterfly portfolio for further details.

Forgot to add above, property is also a very poor investment because of its costs, e.g. maintenance, taxes, insurances, etc.

Agreed and I am well diversified.

Yes, he was right for a long time, people downsizing got most benefit though, and those who understood it was driven by cheap debt probably timed their exit before everyone and their dog started trying to cash out. The public were Ga Ga for property for many years, stocks just don"t seem to have the same attraction for ordinary people, part of it might be that the bank won"t lend you 500k to buy stocks?

And it is extremely illiquid, once a panic/crash starts you won"t be able to sell unless it is real knock-down prices, people found this out in the late 80"s meltdown.

I see you already mentioned Illiquid!

Yes, very disturbing that people can reach their old age and still be utterly clueless about how money and the debt system works. If you bought in the early 80"s take the first best offer you get, you still won the lottery due to time plus a massive debt bubble that still hasn"t popped!

I suspect it will be a lot less than 3 years!

I did v well with my metals and have recently sold out, mainly because of circumstance, although I do think it's gone too crazy and will correct before too long. I will rebuy once or if it does.

It's funny how it's usually the elderly, those who have generally made masses of ££ in property simply because they were born at the right time who complain the most when the value falls, even a relatively small amount. A lot of people seem to be convinced that prices will start to rise again very soon if they just hold on a year. That's been going on for about 4 years now!

Assuming more than one child, initially the “children” will likely put it up for sale for as high a price as the agent they let blow smoke in their ears tells them to.

Reality will bite around 5 months later with inheritance tax bills looming, and I imagine the children will sell at that point for whatever they can get. It will take a while for the market to correct itself though.

Well yes, me too. Chatgpt is going to run out of money before then...

Agree, I think they (Open AI) have already. They've already gone begging to the US government!

I did not know that!

Nothing in that price bracket is selling in my area either. And a lot of houses over 700k that seemed to be sold stc last autumn are coming back on due to failed chains/buyers backing out etc. I think people are scared after the Labour budget and all the talk around being taxed on stamp duty every year- I noticed this killed the market over 500k a bit.
on another note, I saw a house on for months that would not sell so they reduced to 700k and it still wouldn’t sell. They recently took it off the market and went straight back on with another agent for 725k! I wonder how long it’ll be until they reduce it this time. Is It just me or is that incredibly cheeky, to go straight back on the market for a higher amount ? The sellers are an elderly couple who bought it for 635k in 2018, no home improvements made.

People are no longer in a big spender (borrower) mood, if they get 550k to 600k they will be doing very well I think.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/millions-of-uk-households-facing-horror-rise-of-up-to-2-124-mortgage-shock/ar-AA1V4s17

Whoever is advising them sounds as clueless as they are TBH.

2026 is going to be awful for the housing market in general. It looks like nearly a million households have 5 year fixed rates come to an end that were taken out in 2021 !!
In 2021 average rate was under 2% and now it's going to be about 4.8% as an average.
I don't think it will be just the 800k plus bracket thats in a spot of bother for long.. awful when you add in all the inflation and cost of living increases too.

https://news.sky.com/story/money-live-inflation-personal-finance-consumer-tips-sky-news-latest-blog-13040934?postid=8259299

4.8% is still a very low rate!