If you have recently sold or are currently selling a £1m+ house.....

[Popcorn76]

how long did it take you to get viewings after going live on Rightmove?

Also how many viewings did you have, and if sold, how long did it take to get an offer/sale?

We are early in the process at the moment (only went on Rightmove yesterday) but I just have a bad feeling about the whole process as the agents seem v. negative about the market and nothing round here seems to be selling. We are in the South East.

I think you were sensible to accept a much lower offer than the initial valuations last year and get on with moving. Hopefully, the survey won't cause too many problems. You make a good point that older buyers, who bought decades ago are in a fortunate position in that they can afford to take lower offers. It surprises me that many of this group doesn't realise this.

I would say that it is unusual for British people to comment that a house is over priced. It's just not something that Brits tend to say. I'm not saying that your house was over priced, just that I wouldn't take feedback too seriously.

I als agree that the SW was a popular region for location from London/SE buyers (2020-22 particularly) but that this has massively reduced. However, it still seems to be very popular for sellers of more expensive properties in the SW to list with London estate agents, obviously in the hope that a London buyer will think they are getting a bargain. The ones I have seen don't seem to be having much luck with this strategy.

The polite and financially gullible buyers of 10 or 15 years ago with loads of cheap debt tokens to spend are long gone, there are so many podcasts etc. now saying that the property market is basically a Ponzi scheme and that the young are being screwed by debt that it is just a normal assumption by many people that houses are overpriced, this is healthy because it leads to the much needed change in sentiment towards housing.

Know your area. Every thread of this type will have posters telling you its all doom and gloom and to drop your price - I generally assume they are house hunting 😁

In reality there is a lot of patchiness and properties in popular locations, especially if they are a recognisable “type” rather than eg listed buildings still command good prices. In my immediate location the seven figure houses have all been selling within a week or so of going on the market, the houses just below seven figures typically a little longer but still selling well. Eight figure houses - not so sure but they are always outliers. This has always been a very popular area with a lot of people wanting to move in, agents all have multiple names of people seeking homes in this little knot of roads which keeps prices up.

A few streets away houses build ten-fifteen years ago but well appointed are slower to sell. These tend to have slightly smaller rooms and crucially smaller plots. However they are selling, just not quite as high as three years ago.

So in your road and those immediately adjacent what is the market like just now?

Also in the SW and just in the process of getting the house ready to sell, so very interested in what is selling and who is buying!

In the SE (Bucks market town). Been on the market since last September. Went on at 1.5m had loads of viewings (I am losing the will to live) and zero offers. Those that liked it and wanted to offer can’t sell their flats/houses in London.

We’ve just dropped the price to 1.35 so we’ll see. It’s very tough out there. I wouldn’t mind it not selling if I only had to prep every other week or so but last well we had 4 viewings. It’s very stressful.

We are actually looking to move to the SW, if we can sell our house. When looking round a few places in the £1.5 to £2m range the sellers seemed quite dispondent. Most had been on the market for over a year and spoke of interest and offers from people in SE/London who could not sell their houses. There were a lot of houses there though that seemed overpriced to us, people who had bought at the peak in 2022 and were still expecting a large profit.

I am interested where in the country the market is more buoyant, maybe Northern areas?

I am starting to think it might be worth giving up for now and trying again in a year or so when the market has properly reset. I don't mind taking a big drop on our house but only if the next house has taken a similar drop.

'There were a lot of houses there though that seemed overpriced to us, people who had bought at the peak in 2022 and were still expecting a large profit.'

This is the problem. I'm sure many sellers would be prepared to drop their asking prices but they won't/can't unless others are more realistic. The market for larger/more expensive homes has fallen quite signficantly and they need to reduce from the peak 2022 price in order to sell now.

On my road houses are about £1-1.3m. Zone 3 three bed terrace. Market is slower than before but they don’t stay on the market more than a few weeks. We are buoyed by being walking distance to three good to excellent Ofsted rated primaries. I think the market is generally flat and lots of uncertainty with the war and growing COL.

"I am interested where in the country the market is more buoyant, maybe Northern areas?"

There was a good article relating to that this week by rightmove. Basically London and south east are falling the fastest but some areas in North East and North West are still getting some growth - with homes often selling quickly in those areas. I word of caution though - rightmove base their analysis on initial asking prices not actual sold prices after reductions. This means the falls in London and the SE are actually considerably bigger than what they suggest.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/house-price-index/

@Popcorn76 Locally, there are two very nice houses (both large Victorian) for sale at £1m -£1.5m. One was bought (for a bit more, IIRC) during the pandemic frenzy but the other hasn't changed hands for about 15 years. So I'd say they're priced about right.

The next step down is the segment I watch most closely but there are never many sales and comparisons are difficult as they are all so different. One with a similar spec to us turned up on RM last week, at roughly the same asking price, so I'm watching with interest.

Makes sense, when prices drop all houses are affected, basically like a tide going out.