Looking for good news stories of flat sales in London

[speckledpinkhen]

I bought what I genuinely thought was the perfect one-bed flat in East London about 10 years ago. Victorian conversion, top floor, lovely kitchen, private garden, parking, share of freehold and low service charges. I lived in it myself for years and then rented it out for the past five years. I’m now selling it.

I took ages choosing an agent because I really wanted someone proactive. The flat went on the market in April and we had five viewings booked in within the first three weeks. Feedback was generally positive but no offers, and apart from one person who offered on another flat, nobody really explained why they didn’t proceed.

Now we’re six weeks in and, after the initial flurry, I’ve only had one further viewing. I know the market is slower at the moment, especially for flats, but I’m struggling to work out whether this is fairly normal or whether my agent just isn’t doing enough.

I’m especially frustrated because we recently realised they’d listed the property without ticking the garden or parking filters on Rightmove, which feels like quite a major oversight given those are two of its biggest selling points. They also won’t make it a featured property on Rightmove, and other than suggesting a fairly significant price reduction, they haven’t really explained what else they’re doing to generate viewings.

To make it more confusing, a nearby one-bed with no garden sold recently for around £50k more than mine.

I’m not looking for “London flats are impossible to sell” horror stories, more wondering:

• Is six weeks actually still early days?
• Are agents generally quite passive after the initial launch?
• Should they be doing more to keep momentum going?
• Has anyone had a flat go quiet and then suddenly sell a few weeks or months later?

Would really appreciate any balanced insight from people who’ve sold recently.

Your DD made an excellent decision for herself but there are many buyers who put a high value on living in certain parts of London and/or need to for practical reasons.

@GlobalTravellerbutespeciallyBognori am buying outside of London (still bloody expensive area) but get a little more bang for my buck and don’t have to commute back in!

@GlobalTravellerbutespeciallyBognoralso are you an EA or financial planner? I feel like I need someone like you in my life haha

Gosh that is crippling! It’s a very similar situation to us - we are also share of freehold and I really do think it’s on for a decent price looking at others that sold near us, so maybe it really is a case of waiting for the right buyer? We have a 2 bed and reduced from £525k to £500k (we also weren’t informed from EA that there’s a big stamp duty for first time buyers at the 500k mark, so maybe have been better to market at this price initially?!), but perhaps not a big enough reduction if still no offers (although we’d happily negotiate if somebody came in under offer!). Really stuck with what to do next and feeling time pressure to get our place sold (as you are!), due to baby being here, our perfect next house is on the market etc!! Good luck, I am hopeful that if you do reduce / have a marketing push you will at least get another flurry of interest and hopefully the right buyer within that flurry! Xx

Same! Here I now am waiting for my phone to ring with an offer from a viewer 4 weeks ago 😂

If it’s a top floor flat with no lift that will cut out a lot of buyers

Why ‘especially Bognor’ @GlobalTravellerbutespeciallyBognor ?

Haha no I’m not but I have had a lot of dealings with EA over the years and in different (better and worse) markets.

I do think the flat/house switch is the key thing here. Maybe the flat (old build, low service charge) market will improve relatively. I think there is some negative knee jerking going on there.

Maybe worth checking the deductions you can make against CGT if any is due - can you deduct the stamp duty you paid when buying and agent fees when selling? Possibly.

Look at the overall net position.

I have a feeling we live in the same area - recognise your name from when I first bought a flat in the area in 2016 (I think)?!

I doubt EA "strategy" will work now, have you run the price through a mortgage calculator to see how much your target buyer would have to pay every month? Are you using one of the (now many) price tracking apps like PropertyLog to see what other sellers are doing?

But also not going to give it away just to get a sale. Fair enough, and I think that would be OK if you were living in it so you could just wait until the market picks up, but while ever it doesn’t sell it’s costing you at least £1,500 a month so if it takes a year to sell you’ll have lost £18,000 and that’s before you factor in any unforeseen expenses. A friend of mine has been trying to sell an empty flat for nine months and is facing the same dilemma - the longer it fails to sell the more money she is losing and this will be on top of any notional loss if she drops the price.

Why is it costing £1,500 a month?

That’s what the OP said - because her flat is
empty and she is renting somewhere else at the moment.

And also paying mortgage on the empty flat? When does double council tax kick in in that part of London? Sounds to me like either live in it or seriously cut the price to get rid, "not giving it away" doesn"t apply to London flats, you can"t actually give away some London flats, new build sales in London were down 60% recently.

Have you thought of an instagram influencer agent? It might attract the younger buyers. There is one in my area that seems to be doing a great job shifting properties.

I’ve just completed on a flat in London. The listing was atrocious - incorrect service charge, square footage not shown on the plan for all rooms, no pics of the bathrooms. But, I wanted a flat in that particular building and it was perfect. It sat on the market for 8 months with no offers. So, you either need to change agents ASAP or wait until the right buyer comes along. I’m sure my flat would still be languishing on the market had I not bought it.

375 for a top floor 1-bed Victorial conversion sounds more like W. London price to me.
Your neighbour didn't "sell" theirs, they just accepted an offer, and you don't even know if it was lower than asking price. It means nothing.

I think where the cost of paying mortgages have gone up and people can't count on moving every few years like they used to, and FTBs are older and are looking more long term so thats 2 or 3 beds even if it means moving to a less 'good' area. So flats like yours have really suffered. If you already have a lower price in mind that you'd accept, why not lower it to that and try to make the most of the warm weather for a buyer that wants a garden.

OP your in between a rock and a hard place with this one. The agents have made it clear that you need to adjust your value expectation. They no doubt have plenty of properties on their books - as numbers of properties for sale are higher than they have been for years - so its reasonable for them to focus hardest on the ones they think they will sell. I dont quite agree with the change agent suggestions.
I get why adjusting your forward plans for a purchase is difficult to swallow. You only really have 2 choices (well 3 if you want to count just burying your head and hoping for the best - which might or might not turn out well). You either adjust the price to a point it attracts offers, or you rent it out again ?
If you are really determined to not let it out again then you have something else to consider. The direction of the market. We have two increases in interest rates forecast this year and another round of cost of living increases and rising inflation. I would suggest values may fall further, almost certainly. So if you dont adjust your price quickly and appropriately you could easily be in the "trying to catch a falling knife situation" where you reduce little by little but never catch up with the affordability adjustments enough to snag a buyer.
You need to change your mindset a little - falling prices and slow sales will also benefit your position as a potential buyer after you have sold. No one is suggesting you give your flat away - you have been paying off the mortgage for 10 years so you will definitely end up with a profit and your investment back, just less than you first hoped.
Wish you luck, be flexible in your thinking and you should be in a strong purchasing position after this has been sorted

There's 2,500 one bedroom flats up for sale all over London selling for £325k - £375k. Some of these flats are beautiful and in prime locations. Most are leasehold but some flat buyers will overlook this for a cheaper flat than yours and / or to live in London.

Not something to consider so early, but later on you could always put your flat up for auction?

My friend is selling his beautiful 2 bed flat in a really nice area of greater London (zone 4) for 375,000 and really struggling to sell. I think you will struggle to sell a 1 bed at that price in this market to be honest. The market is flooded with flats at the moment and buyers can take their pick.

1 bed flats in my area go for £450k. Flat prices are so area dependent. Comparing one part of London to another is pointless.

I think @stardrops1 was pointing out the generally awful situation for people trying to sell flats in London.

Perhaps but she was also suggesting that a one bed wouldn’t go for £375k based on the price of a two bed in a different part of London. Most people when buying will know where they want to buy and won’t (necessarily) move to a different part of London because it fits their budget.

Yes, accepting an "offer" means very little, even if the buyer is happy with the price their lender will likely down-value in this climate.Large numbers of "offers" fail to make it to a sale now.