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.

There were big moves on the 10 year yield just because a politician in Scotland said in a speech KS should go! If he actually does go I think markets will take a wobble.

Today"s events?

I’m generation millennial (1992) I have come into a sum of money <700k I could easily get a mortgage for £400k to get a £1m house but why bother when I can get a £500k house and have money in the bank earning interest… people are being sensible. I don’t want to spend my days cleaning a massive house and I don’t want to hire a cleaner either because it’s awkward…. When I was searching I actually got put off by the amount of work that was still needed on most of the houses £600k+ or they were newbuilds 🤮

You are doing the right thing. A big house costs more in maintenance and alot more spaces to clean, l know. Decorating my hall at the moment, it has a gallery landing, so loads of stair rods to paint. Also want to change the internal doors and door handles. This means 18 doors and 18 pairs of door handles, we have changed our minds, and will forget the new doors and replace the door handles, they need it. Still got two kids at home, when they have gone, me and my dh will be off too. To a smaller house, that will have 2 spare rooms for guests, so a 3 bedroom will do us....and l cannot wait.

I had to replace the roof of a 1930's 4 bed detached 30 years ago and it cost £16k. I was chatting to someone the other day who also just replaced the roof of a 4 bed detached and it cost £40K. I do wonder what percentage of large home owners have the necessary means to undertake necessary maintenance when they arise.

I think house prices haven’t caught up (or down) with rising interest rates. It’s a vicious cycle, and just means the market is very very slow.

I see the ‘you’re just not able to afford it’ argument a lot on here and don’t get it.

we just sold a house in that bracket and I was worried about there being a smaller pool of buyers available to me. If ppl can’t afford my bracket then that means there’s less competition for the house which affects value negatively.

A buyer may well be able to afford that bracket but why would they put themselves out and pay asking for a house that’s been on the market for a year. Clearly nobody else thinks that’s the correct value either. It would be a risky thing to do.

having a house on for that length of time and expecting to get asking seems a strange to me.

houses are only worth what people are willing to pay ultimately.

Market is not great atm and not aided by unrealistic sellers

Yes, the "can"t afford it" meme is just sellers unable to process reality for whatever reason.

You hogging a massive house provides no value to society. If you can’t pay the tax, downsize.

You’re not being forced to sell, you’re being forced to pay appropriate tax.

Everyone else works hard too, you just got lucky via year of birth.

Hard to argue with that really, but the people buying a house way back couldn"t predict the future and are not responsible for the banker"s debt schemes to boost their bonus pool or the stupidity of the recent buyers (last 20 years or so who went along with it and helped make the bubble even bigger?)