Anyone else finding it difficult to sell a larger family home?

[Pickleandwhizz]

Anyone struggling to sell their home, ok we have only been on a month and ive not moved for the last 15yrs. We are trying to downsize, we have a 5 bed detached in its own plot with double garage, brand new kitchen and boiler only fitted few days ago, log burner, its a 1980,s home so all the rooms are large, ive parking for 8 cars. Its was initially on for 425 but we reduced to 410, we are happy to take 395 for it but people who come love it yet they cant afford it, they want it for 375 but if i sold for that we couldnt buy what we want. Estate agents are saying people want something for nothing and its because they cant get a mortgage. Anyone else trying to sell?

The next generation aren't saying that at all. Where do you get that idea from?!

They are saying that they can't afford the prices! I'm sure most people with children at home would love a large house with a large garden if they could afford one.

You've identified the fact that there are less people willing and able to buy expensive houses and noted the fact that the cost of renovations has spiralled. You also have DC who are young adults so must understand that the job market is very poor and the salaries offered are very low relative to housing and other essential costs. Then you say this which seems to contradict what you know and understand:
'Wandering around a huge, lovely house that we may never be able to sell for a reasonable price.'
Your opinion about what is 'reasonable' may be different from the economic reality of what the market will pay (from your own post) and therefore seems unreasonable in the circumstances!

This sounds correct if nothing is selling in general.

Your comments seem to change depending on what you are looking though, agreeing with the EA that 'people want something for nothing' when considering your own property and then saying that the smaller homes are wildly overpriced and that EAs are over pricing when you are looking at a smaller property that you might want to buy!
Bts, this from the agents is totally contradictory!
'Estate agents are saying people want something for nothing and its because they cant get a mortgage.'

As you say, it sounds as if the whole market needs to shift. FTBs/second steppers aren't suddenly going to acquire lots more £££ en masse in the next few years.

OK, so perhaps I should have said “wandering around a huge lovely house that I may not easily be able to sell”. We’re not planning to anyway - we will pass it on to one of our children if we do not downsize/move.

The point I was trying to make - evidently badly - is that the number of people with the money to buy properties over 1m has contracted. That used to be a large number of non UK investors and also city workers - who have now left the UK since Brexit and Labour govt. It is difficult to recruit overseas professionals now, so they and their families are not coming to London and many are leaving - it is hostile to those needing to use private schools, for example who can educate their children more cheaply in the EU. My DH works in a company where this is a real issue. People will work for them, but they do not want to live in London or move to the UK. We can no longer compete on salaries which is significant given property prices and cost of living… and VAT on school fees.

There are approx 650k properties valued over £1m in the uk. 340k of them are in London, 150k are in the SE commuter belt. The main market for those properties were people who worked in London. They now hybrid work from both within and outside the UK.

So the issue is a contracting market of buyers who have £1m to spend and those that have are, naturally, increasingly fussy so properties take longer to sell. It isn’t always just about price. A gold necklace is worth what it is worth due to the value of gold - but if no one has the money to spend, they cannot buy it. It doesn’t mean a jeweller should give it away. It means that they will hold on to it until the market improves and buyers return to the market. Much as we will do. It’s an evolving picture and in a few years time and a change of government things will hopefully swing back again. They did after 2008. Property investment is a long game now. I know several people who have been dealing with buyers offering 10-20% below asking price and insisting it is removed from the market immediately - while not having sold their own properties. They’ve simply taken their properties off the market - the effect is the local market has now stalled as there is a sweet-spot between what people are willing to pay AND what people are willing to sell at.

But if the OP, as this is their thread, is in a position where they desperately need to sell their 5 bed nowish, that doesn’t help them because they’s need to take their chances with with chancers. It’s a bit shit for people like my neighbours who have completely underestimated the costs involved in a refurb and will not be able to sell quickly. I feel for anyone who has no choice but to try to sell in this market.

The market around here (outer SW London) is AFAIK pretty much at a standstill. General uncertainty, esp. the UK government! - global worries, wars, Trump/Putin maniacs, cost of living on top….

This is my point as well, just because buyers dont have the money for the property they are effectively say you should sell it low to move on, stuff that, id die in the property before i did that, my home is priced under comparable sold prices, the market is not telling me its overpriced, the market is telling me in my area there are not enough buyers who can afford, so i will wait, ive sold 4 properties over the yrs, ive seen markets change and people are like it wont change but it does, things become stable and improve, when i bought my first home the market was crazy there was a crack down on lending and they would only give me 50k, houses at the time were double that, everyone was panicking and houses below 100k were being sold unseen. It was just luck my dad saw a terrace for 49k which was dire, nowhere i wanted to live, just a sink in the kitchen nothing else, woodchip wall paper etc it was an elderly persons home. I was first to view EA said there was 10 other views that day, i gave asking price on the spot justvto get on the housing ladder. Lived in that property for 2yrs like that then remortgaged done it up and sold on. This is what the estate agent means by people wanting something for nothing, people today dont want to do that, they want brand new kitchens, bathrooms, no work at their expense. They said to do work costs well hello yes, but you are expecting others to shell out and you then come along an offer low ball because you cant afford it, so sorry but no. I will also wait for a few yrs and see how the market progresses.

You seem to be identifying the fact that demand for expensive property has fallen a lot/collapsed in some places but then don't seem to have made the logical conclusion which is that this causes price falls and will continue to do so. You instead say that it isn't just about price. Even if you and up to 90% of those who would quite like to sell decide not to (or can't at the price that they would like to achieve), the 10% who do need to sell will set the prices at the margin.
The gold necklace isn't a good comparison as the gold price is related to the spot price which is literally the price at which gold is currently being bought and sold. Whether the jeweller sells the gold necklace for less than his initial price (obviously he won't give it away) depends on whether he needs to sell more volume to support his business. There is no spot price for housing but the closest comparitor would be what similar properties in the same area are selling for and that comes back to the 10% who actually sell.
At this stage, no one can know for sure whether housing prices do recover and increase again in a few years once this downturn is over. There is no certainty that they will do in real (ex inflation) terms as they are so out of kilter with wages and there is no new impetus for growth/large salary increases. I don't see what difference a new government will make at this late stage.

The market is literally telling you that a house is overpriced if it isn't selling for months and months (or often for years). Like the pp, you understand that people don't have the money but don't seem to realise that prices are falling and will continue to fall as a result. No one is saying that you should sell 'low'. You either sell at market price or you die in the property if that is what you prefer to do. It's your choice and there is no point in getting angry about it.

This is where you seem younger, governments do sway alot, this doom and gloom notion that nothing will change is very wrong, the stamp duty has been holted many a time over the yrs, when i took out my first mortage interest rates were 8%, in the next few yrs they reduced to around 6%. Problem is people have got used to low interest rates and now they are back to a normal rate people are shocked. If the market slows anymore they may freeze the stamp duty, problem you got is labour gov who are not interested in growth. Like the last labour gov, tax is the only form of revenue they know.

Whose angry 🤣

I’ve also noticed that in quite a few areas, new houses have been built (they look pretty decent) and they seem to be mostly 2 and 3 beds. Older properties now have more competition so prices are reducing. A good thing I think as property was getting ridiculous at 10x the average wage in some places rather than the 3x it used to be.

I find 80s houses really bland and boxy and they are always the least desirable.

I'm really struggling to understand your written English in this post. Yes people have got used to low rates and some may be shocked. It's not just a shock, however. It's the fact that higher rates make mortgages and other things less affordable. Higher rates are only one factor wrt the lack of affordability. There have been multiple factors in recent years and things are getting worse rather than better.
As I said, no one knows what will happen in the future but it would be a mistake to simply assume that the market will have risen to greater heights within a few years.

the market is not telling me its overpriced, the market is telling me in my area there are not enough buyers who can afford

🤪 They are the same thing!!!

It's fine though, because the market will revive and suddenly there will be loads of people who can afford it...

Make it make sense.

Interest rates are not high, house prices are too high.

When the bond market gets a grip prices will be much lower, try to sell now.

We are in the process of selling our (reasonably priced) 3 bed house and buying a big 4 bed house - edge of London so the prices are all much higher than round you, but I think some of the principles are quite similar.

Our house went under offer really quickly. We've found somewhere we want to buy (we are lucky that we will be able to keep our current mortgage because we've got a big chunk of money from inheritance). We looked at about 15 houses where we want to move and have found one to buy, but some of those houses have been on the market for a long time. All of the ones not selling are:

1. Overpriced in the current market
2. Something weird/undesirable about them which can't be fixed and not priced to reflect (eg really overlooked garden, busy road etc)
3. Need masses of work/probate sale or just not been touched for years.

The number of buyers who can pay a mortgage on a highly priced property for the area has diminished, and so you will always get a big drop in buyers. We are leaving our 3 bed but everyone else round us seems to be converting the loft and staying because that costs less than moving somewhere with a bigger garden, garage, semi detached rather than a terrace etc.

People also don't necessarily want big gardens. I love gardening and it's really important to me but most of my friends with small children choose to spend their their precious limited spare time and money doing other stuff!

Any chance you could share the right move listing? Lots of people on here are very good at spotting issues the seller hasn’t thought of or that the photos aren’t good

That is where experience comes in. If you've never experienced it then your outlook on life is very narrow. Things change, life moves on, including the property market, always highs and lows.

yes but with time 1 will be able to afford it. Sometimes selling is about patience. If im still in the property in 2yrs time so be it, its no rush.

I know quite a few people who are downsizing.
In the long run it makes sense. Lower bills, less maintenance, less cleaning, better for health reasons, more practical. Therefore lots of smaller more practical homes may seem expensive but it is all relative.

It depends entirely on the market.
I would say your house is only of interest to those with a big family. That means it will sell at that price to that category.
I’m sure it will sell op, you just need to drop on the right buyer. If the right buyer can’t afford it, then you have a problem.

In two years the price you want for it today will be cheaper in real terms than it is today. So in two years you're either going to want even more for it than you do now, or the price you want today will represent a drop in value 🤷‍♀️

What I’m trying to say is size isn’t everything!
I will only move again to either:

1. a bungalow
2. a home with a gated big, private drive and big garden. However, I do not want a big house so number 2 seems infeasible. Number 1 is quite infeasible due to the cost of bungalows. We don’t need to move ever again. The only reason to move would be due to future health reasons where we need a bungalow. Point 2 is just a preference of mine as I don’t like to see cars parked on the street! It just irritates me for some reason. We have ample parking though where we are.

So a house with say an extra bedroom is not worth it to me. It would be worth it to those with lots of children but, can they afford it?

Or they know how much it costs for even basic updating these days.

My son and DIL are looking to upgrade in the Cardiff area. They are renting at the moment after selling their original home.

There are some absolute monstrosities on the market with horrific swirly carpets, dated bathrooms and kitchens yet sellers are expecting almost the same price as ones that have been modernised (which do fly, often for over the asking price).

All trades and materials are very expensive these days and working families often don't have the time, money and energy to get the work done.

I've just found the OP's house on Rightmove.

OP...my thoughts are that it's some way outside Cardiff where transport links are poor and there's a lot of deprivation, which has become steadily worse over the decades since the pits closed. It's not an area that higher paid young professionals would want to live and locals just don't have the money.

If you're not desperate to sell, then you may as well take it off the market - the economy, especially in Wales, isn't going to rebound any time soon.