two bed garden flat in Wandsworth not selling

[FlatSellerLondon]

Long time reader but struggling to sell two bed garden flat in Wandsworth - The flat is in good ocndition and we reduced it a few times - The price now advertised is less than what we paid for it in 2017

Period property 80 square metres good condition and asking for 650,000 after previouslybeing advised to list for 750K

How much lower can we go - Do we reduce it to 625K again and then 600K

Is the london proeprty market really that slow

If you’re brave enough to post a link, you will get valuable feedback. 😬

It sounds quite cheap. Have you tried different or multiple agents?

It’s silly to ask this question without a link…

I mean it depends. But I live in London and wouldnt pay that much for a 2 bed flat. Even with garden.
But ultimately it depends on the exact area, what kind of flat (maisonette, conversion, purpose built etc et )

Share of freehold or leasehold, service charges?

The London flat market is going through structural changes for a number of reasons, add in lack of inward foreign investors (who's money inflated prices)and that salaries have caught up with house prices.

This is a bad time for sellers in general, particularly anyone who wants to sell a flat. Awareness of the difficulties with the leasehold thing, service charges you can’t control, more risk of noise from neighbours.

You’re effectively competing with many other sellers. A quick look on Rightmove finds a lot of other garden that’s in Wandsworth selling for way under £625k, some of which have been in the market for a long time. You’ll have to reduce again.

is it really about the price or should i wait for the right buyer - when we bought in 2017 there were several investors and landlords wanting flats that we saw - Why cant an investor buy this flat and collect rental money?

you can get a lovely 3 bed semi with massive garden for that money ( ok, maybe more 750K ) just 20 minutes up the A3.
possibly that’s what people are thinking?

I would rather buy a house

Because recent changes mean the property market is no longer attractive to landlords. Flats in particular are suffering.

My understanding is that landlords are actually looking to sell at the moment due to the new Act.

I posted a link on here to my property when I was struggling to sell. I got some much invaluable advice about the presentation of my home, photographs, kerb appeal etc. would you be up for posting a link to yours?

If it is such a good deal, just keep it and rent it out yourself

The same reason no one else wants to buy it. High interest rates make buying it a terrible deal.

The mortgage on that flat is going to be about 3k a month, you can probably rent it for a similar price.

Me and DP looked at buying a flat and when you do the maths it will take the best part of 10 years just to break even over renting the same flat.

Interest rates or prices need to drop a lot more for it to be worth buying.

There’s no point talking about the market in 2017. You need to :
Discuss with your agent what their strategy is e.g. would you consider open house days
Consider changing agent
Get feedback on here - people are mostly kind.
Consider your finances. What do you need in order to move and how urgently do you need to move.

Landlords aren't buying anymore due to all the restrictions placed on landlords now. It's awful for the property market and for the rental market!

@FlatSellerLondoncheck out recently sold prices on Rightmove/Zoopla for flats in your area. Sadly few are selling at anywhere close to 2017 prices. If you have to move you will probably need to take quite a substantial reduction.

I had a quick look at similar priced properties in your area, and there are a fair few that have made similar price reductions. I also had a quick look at sold prices on my road (not the same area, but London and a lot of conversion flats) and there are more than a couple that have made a significant loss sold in the last year that were bought in 2016/17.

how is that possible with inflation for houses to be less especially in london and in a good area

Because with hybrid/remote working lots of people don’t need to be in London anymore. And as others have commented, landlords are selling up so there are too many properties and not enough buyers.

there’s an article on the sky news app today which says house prices in London have only increased by 7% on average in the last 10 years. Some of them will be less attractive and therefore not have increased at all.

Because we are not talking about houses but flats.
Landlords who were large buyers of flats are exiting the market, they have their flats up for sale,and very few with any sense are going into being a landlord now.
There has been massive property price growth especially during Covid with stamp duty removal.This is now in reverse.
Now the economy is in the toilet, interest rates up, job loses up, and buyers have dried up, or those that are going to buy will only do so with a discount as they know which way the market is going.

@FlatSellerLondon market forces. The demand for flats to buy is much less than the number for sale. Private landlords are exiting the market so adding to the supply, and new buyers to rent much less because of the Renters Rights Act. Impossible to say if the market will drop further or stabilise, but I suspect any recovery will be long teem.

London property is an awful investment due to the sheer cost of it vs the potential rental returns.

In your case £650k invested competently would give a vastly higher return than collecting rent on your flat, even before overheads & tax.

Even with a 75% LTV buy to let mortgage it’s still a very bad investment, unless you think London flat prices are going to jump up again drastically in the coming years.

So no landlords are looking to buy London flats at the moment.

I agree with others - the new Rental rules are making having a BTL / investment property much less attractive. I know of two people who have sold for that very reason. And there will be many others , I am sure in London , who will be facing big losses on flats because just at the moment it appears to be a buyer's market ( unless you have something very special ). I know this vicariously because DS who works in London bought a flat last year and many of those he saw were being sold by landlords and in at least two cases to his knowledge for less than they had been bought for over the last 10 years. It doesn't help but it depends how keen you are to move I suppose and what you want to buy, so do you lose on the sale but get the next step cheaper ? Also I think people are able to afford now , because of price decreases , being nearer to really good transport links. So if you are near eg Clapham tube / train , good , but lots of Wandsworth , whilst lovely, isn't great for public transport.

I sympathise op. My dd has been trying to sell her pretty, competitively priced flat in London which is in good nick and a nice area, and there has been no interest.