Anyone else finding very little suitable property coming onto the market?

[pinkpetunias]

I’m not sure if this is the case for all areas but it is for ours. We really want to move but despite having valuations done we haven’t taken the plunge and put ours on the market because there is very little coming to market where we want to buy, and most available properties seem overpriced compared to what was sold over the last year or have issues. I’ve been watching the market in the area we want to buy for months, on EA books for private listings and there’s not been anything come up that we would want to view. We’re in Surrey.

I realise the irony that we are probably contributing to the problem with this but we don’t want to mess anyone around by securing a buyer for ours and not finding an onward purchase, and would like breaking the chain as a last resort. We can wait until next year but we will need to move then, but ideally want to now!

What is needed for the market to pick up? Is anyone else finding the same or is this a me problem and I’m just way pickier than I thought?

We've got the same dilemma. There's just not a massive pool of properties to choose from here.

The problem is that most estate agents here won't let you even view a property until you've got an offer on yours, or you're a cash/first time buyer.

So we would potentially have an offer on ours, and then pressure to find somewhere! Which sounds vvv stressful.

If something does come on the market you like, you'd have to move quick too. So by the time your property is photographed etc etc the house you're interested in could be sold!!!

I know! I don’t want to be trying to do it the wrong way round. It feels too much of a gamble in this market to put ours up for sale then hope something comes up given that nothing has for months. Very little is selling so either there’s no one looking or other potential buyers feel the same. I suspect it’s the latter.

We last bought in 2021, there was loads on the market, we viewed quite a few over the course of two weeks and had a shortlist of ones we liked but now we can’t even find a single property we would want to view.

What is needed for the market to pick up?

A new Government that isn't Labour

Yep, similar market hereabouts in Wiltshire it seems. Don't need to sell but (according to an agent) being on the market would probably get you into viewings. But if we go on the market and sell with nowhere to go...wouldn't even help if you say you'd move into rented.

South east here too and having the same issue!
we have a buyer and pulled out of a purchase and now trying to find something but everything is ridiculously priced and that’s not including the work you’d add on!
If our buyers pull out then we will come off and go back on when the market makes any sense.

Same here. I really need a bungalow and the decent ones sold very quickly so I had to put mine on the market first (been watching since last Christmas). Mine sold two months ago but there haven't been any decent bungalows coming on. They are either chalet style or 2nd bedroom is a box room or council tax is astronomical 😤

There's a shortage of houses.

The estate agent told us they have a list of potential buyers waiting, who gets first dibs as soon as something comes on the books.

So by the time you see a good one on Rightmove, it's probably already got someone interested. Very difficult.

Put yours on the market and see if you can find a buyer who's flexible to wait a bit?

Same here in the NW. Our house is on the market but getting very little interest, and also we can't find anywhere suitable to buy. Plan is that once we find somewhere we like, we will reduce our asking price by 10 percent and make an offer when we have an offer on ours. But that could take a long time.

This!

I do think you have to take the plunge, especially if you really will have to move next year. Sell and rent if you have to?

Where I am there’s quite a lot sitting on the market but it’s all massively overpriced. I think estate agents are expecting extremely low offers tbh so I’d make those. There’s a 6 bedroom semi detached on my road that was initially listed at 1.1 million. That is a truly insane price especially in a falling market. It dropped to 1 million within a week, not sure what’s going on.

We've had a similar issue - been keen to move for about 2 years, but there's only been about 5 properties we wanted to view. Admittedly we have been very picky.

What helped us was finding an estate agent who sorted all the paperwork to sell our house, did the photos etc and then waited until we found a house we liked. Our offer was accepted and our listing went onto Rightmove that day. I don't know how common that is, but it made things a lot easier for us as we could commit to putting our house on the market v quickly.

An end to the middle east war?

I would press on and get yours up for sale.
A great place could come up (it only takes one) and you'll be ready to pounce.

If you have to go on the market at that point you'll likely lose it.

Take the plunge. Go for it.

Good luck
X

No, there are more houses on the market now than any other year in recent memory.

Our purchase fell through back in June, and we haven’t seen anything vaguely appealing since. We don’t need to sell first so not stressed or rushing thankfully. We’re trying to find a place with a garage in a city with lots of Victorian terraces so somewhat limited, but there are still plenty about.

Feels like nothing is selling due to unrealistic pricing; literally every place we viewed and considered is still on sale, some now approaching 6 months on the market.

The one place we liked, but thought was about £100k overpriced due to work needed & 3 bed vs 4 beds everywhere else on the same street, remains on the market from months ago.

We’re in the same position - bought our house in 2021, had a few different viewings etc. There were 16 other viewings after us on our house when we put our offer in. It was a crazy time.
Now we really want to move, but the insane house prices and lack of suitable properties are making it so hard. We also don’t want to put ours on the market and get a buyer but then have nowhere to go (this happened to us a couple of years ago and we felt awful having to pull out and let our buyers down). I don’t want to go through all that again.
We’ve had a couple of estate agents value ours and one said that we have to have an offer on our house to be able to make any offers, the other agent said we can make an offer and then get ours on the market, but obviously the property will still have viewings so someone else could make an offer before ours is marketed.
We need to move within the next 2 years really but it’s so daunting and tricky.

Same, I’m looking in Surrey / SW London. The areas I’m looking at only have houses that are overpriced or need a lot of work. The only one that came on the market that was suitable had already sold by the time it appeared on RightMove. I’m registered with all the relevant estate agents and get the vibe they are getting fed up with me for being ‘fussy’. I mean, sorry I don’t fancy an overpriced house with a flood risk close to a main road, that needs a new kitchen and bathroom.

I am midway through selling and going into rented, but really am wondering if and when a suitable house will come up to buy, and how much of a compromise I’ll need to make. I’m hoping more comes on on in September.

It’s a tough market and some unrealistic sellers out there
sell first and go into rented ?
Angela Rayner will be keen to get to her target if 1.5m houses in this parliament, lots of new applications for multiple houses going on grey belt will only strengthen supply which should drop prices further
prices are dropping via inflation rising as well which makes for an uncertain market

There isn't a shortage in my area - in fact there are more listings at the moment in my search than there has been for a long time. The problem is the price, many sellers are generally still trying to price like it was 2021. They then sit unsold for ages - before either withdrawing from the market or reducing.
Occasionally a house comes on correctly priced and its gone within a few days !
Interest rates will likley increase again this year too, so thats putting off a lot of pent up moving demand. People are often sitting tight and waiting for the correction to work through before looking/listing. Its going to take a while unless we have another global event to push things ahead a bit quicker. Which is certainly possible.

House prices are dropping in my area, and are just not selling, and yet they want to build more houses. That’s not helping the situation, to be honest.

Looking on RightMove there are lots of price reductions so I don't think it's the case that people aren't being realistic. At the mid market price I can see around 40-50% of the properties I'm filtering on have a Reduced [date] on them. People are having to change their expectations,

@pinkpetunias If you really want to move, you would be well-advised to start marketing your property. Make sure you aren't part of the problem by pricing yours realistically. Look on Zoopla for a valuation and reduce it massively 😂also get 3 agents to value it. Get a really clear idea of what your house is actually worth in the current economic environment.

its a very slow market so your property may take ages to find a buyer. You need to play the long game on this, due to the challenging environment. We're taking a 1 year view, that it will take at least a year to move.

The problem is that most estate agents here won't let you even view a property until you've got an offer on yours, or you're a cash/first time buyer to this point made upthread, it isn't the EA dictating that, it is very often the vendor who stipulates they want people to be on the market. It sifts out the time wasters from the serious committed buyers.

We've had someone who has been holding the sword of Damocles over us via our EA that they won't instruct an agent until they've seen our house. We're just not interested in dealing with people with that mindset, we want reasonable people who are demonstrating commitment. If someone isn't on the market yet, they can't make a reasonable offer on ours when they haven't even got off the starting blocks! This market is so slow, it could be months of flip flopping and indecision, we don't need that added stress, when there are viewers already on the market (they don't even have to be fully proceedable)

Wait until September and hope it picks up when everyone is back from summer holidays?

I guess you must be in an area where the type of house you own is very popular so you expect a quick sale?

We’ve had a house for sale since March. Reduced twice. Nothing. Similar to others in the area.