Are estate agents overvaluing homes in Wales and elsewhere?

[2longinthetooth]

When are estate agents going to get real. Seriously here in Wales their valuations are crazy. Can people be that deluded that they think they will achieve 350k for a semi in the valleys. These are not exceptional properties neither. I mean wth.
Ive been following the market for 1yr and this summer I can count on 1 hand the properties that have actually sold. Surely estate agents have to get a grip at some point because surely they are starting to lose a lot of money. People are not even reducing. Its gone full stalemate. I think they are hoping its their summer slump and September will improve but ive doubts. Properties have been sitting on the market for well over a yr, some are reaching their 2yr mark. Who are these people who sit for that long. Obviously not serious house movers.
How is it in the rest of the country.

No doubt, but demand for rental also took a wobble, and less people want to be landlords now.

We are landlords from next month. We didn't want to be but there's a queue for our large modern family house (company let) but no buyers. We have to let it due to ill health.

What I have noticed is property up to 700k ish in my area is selling (not doer uppers) but closer to 800k plus and it’s sitting there even if it’s a much better house for the money. All I can think is there are enough buyers with two decent salaries & a big deposit/some equity who can afford the cheaper end whereas the higher end is now out of reach to many. Stamp duty makes a big difference when you haven’t made much on a previous property & need to save/borrow it.

I don't really care, as long as the vendor of the house I want to buy has had the same memo. Values are down 25%, so can we just cut to the chase? Please?

Stamp duty is a huge cost on property transactions. Friends downsizing spent £38k to buy a smaller house in the SE. I'm sure HMRC love it. For the rest of us, it's stopping us moving.

Paying what the sellers wants would be over paying in the cases being discussed. I've seen a few houses reduced by 30% and still not selling. These sellers are massively over valuing. It depends on the areas of course and the type of house. The cheaper, smaller properties tend to sell much more quickly and have kept their value better.
I'm not selling or buying. I'm guessing that you might be selling now/soon?

I agree. This has been happening since 2023 in a lot of places and still the agents/sellers don't seem to have got the memo! Personally, I think the declines are likely to speed up, not slow down.

I was wondering about your situation. Are you having to move due to ill health? I'm v sorry to hear that if so.
Could you not afford to just reduce your asking price and get rid of your property so that you don't need to worry about being landlords with the responsibilities and potential problems that involves? It might be worth considering again, particularly if you have serious health problems too.

@rainingsnoring unfortunately we can't reduce it further. We did have one offer from a hmo landlord. Subject to planning which he wouldn't get.

We've been offered a high rent through an agent. We have an unusual layout that suits large families. We are no longer using all the rooms and I am disabled so need less or no stairs.
Unfortunately when we went to the market so did six others on our development. Two sold ( even larger than ours) and the others are still for sale. It was a previous rental so I'm confident it will have few voids but of course BTL finance is much cheaper so we have a contingency.

Local bungalows are either in 70+ communities ( we're still working) or sell through sealed bids and then get developed into large family homes.
I'm trying to future proof our move but so are many others!
A three bed with additional lateral accommodation is the same price as a modern five bed in our villages (1 hour from London).
Period houses of course are £900k+

I see (I think). Do you mean that you want to rent the current house out and buy a bungalow in the same area? If I've understood, that would mean that you would have two properties and be subject to CGT and higher SDLT charges.
How would you feel if property prices fell more over the next 2/3/5 years or whatever your time frame is for renting the property out?

We know about the tax.

I can tell you aren't selling, you blithely suggest that people just knock off 10-15% of the potential value of maybe their biggest asset. You first!
There are more reasons than price that places don't sell, this short thread shows the disparity there can between area and properties. I'm aware that some agents over-value, ever was it thus.
I hope anyone having trouble selling their property does more than consider knocking the price down, because as you say some can have even 30% knocked off and still not sell - why? It's not just to do with price is why.

We are in a nice part of the home counties. Our neighbours bought their detached 5 bed in 2022 for 1.3m - they sold earlier this year for 1.15. A loss of 150k. The house is in immaculate condition and a great location!

Other houses in our village are on the market and not selling - one is asking for 1.7m for immaculate condition, another larger property needing work is on for 1.3. Both have been on for months with reductions.

In the town near us I see some 3 beds and 2 beds selling, nearly all in good condition. Hanging around on the market are loads of properties with 90s kitchens, old bathrooms - priced as if they don't need work.

So I think the issue is a combo of over pricing and buyers being less keen on doing work

@Bridgetoo thank you for your post. I've been on a few over the last year or so all saying it's price. I can be but mainly it's the cost of buying in my opinion.
Stamp duty, moving vans (fuel) and borrowing. Add in the dire employment market and few can afford to move.
I moved around a lot for jobs and then caring.
My mortgage three years ago was 4% it's now nearly 8% and due to a change in circumstances I became a mortgage prisoner.
I couldn't sell the house due to a lot of competition as I stated up thread. All those houses are still for sale.
I had advice to declutter and one agent told me to buy new furniture (modern from IKEA, ours was dated!). I did engage a professional declutterer and had a deep clean but it made no difference nor did the three price reductions, new agents and photographs. Until there's a change in stamp duty or lowing of mortgage rates an awful lot of people are stuck.
It took 5 years for prices to start increasing locally after the 2008 crash. I hope that when our let has finished in 2031 we'll be able to sell. We sold in 2009 for a loss!

Estate Agents are among the slimiest and most corrupt gits on the planet so nothing would surprise me.

If the property isn't selling in months or even years, you aren't knocking off 10-15% off the value. You over estimated the current market value in the first place. As I already said, some sellers still haven't realised that the market has fallen for some types of houses in many areas. The owners of the house that has now been reduced by 30% massively over estimated their home's value in the first place several years back. That was their mistake. Unfortunately, once a house has been on the market on and off for 3 or 4 years, the sellers usually end up getting less because everyone thinks something is wrong with it and the one interested buyer can negotiate hard. You could get away with valuing well over what the last similar house had sold for in the 2020-22 housing boom but you can't now because the market is falling.

I agree that the cost of debt and SDLT are very high but all these things literally come down to price. @DrySherry gave an example of how much more expensive total mortgage payments are at higher rates. As you say, the job market is poor and likely to worsen. I think that rates will come down, at least shortish term, but I also think that house prices will fall more.
Good luck with your plans.

I’m not buying, I’m selling - or trying to

" because as you say some can have even 30% knocked off and still not sell - why? It's not just to do with price is why."

That suggests that it is more than 30% overpriced, OR there is a much larger problem that can"t be fixed by money, so possibly unsellable?

Adults made adult decisions, no one forced them to take on massive mortgage debts, it was well telegraphed in the media and various online forums that rates were probably going to rise at some point. Your post really outlines the financial hit of taking on housing debt, but are present rates actually at historical norms, my feeling is that historical norms were a bit higher?

Apologies the quotes got confused.

There's a period cottage for sale near us. We actually viewed it in Spring 2024 when our Welsh house was sstc and we were in the process of moving back to England. It was on for 400k and obviously in need of loads of work as almost every room was riddled with damp/paint and plaster hanging off the walls. It had been tenanted for decades and hadn't been maintained during that time. All original features were long gone. The work didn't bother us as we were looking for a project, but the lack of features did.

However, we liked the potential so we offered 350k (no mortgage, quick exchange). A similar, but sympathetically renovated cottage two minutes walk away had sold in 2023 for 700k. The EA said the vendor wouldn't accept less than 400k as it had been valued for probate at 600k. We walked away and purchased a different Georgian cottage nearby.

After about a year on the market (no reductions), they removed it to 'renovate' which included removing the last original chimney stack and chemical damp proofing. It went back on in July 2025 at 500k. A year on it's still for sale at 500k.

One sale fell through after the buyers discovered the work was done without permission (it's a conservation area which the vendor - who's lived in the CA in a different house for 30 years, so should know! - denied ) and retrospective planning is now being sought. Trouble is, the damp has returned and the decorators keep returning to patch things up. I can't see it selling any time soon.

Yes. One specific property I can think of was possibly 30% over priced initially. I would say perhaps 40% now. It's a perfectly nice, large, detached house on a pleasant road. It's owned by older people and needs some money spent on it, which puts some people off. Unfortunately for the sellers, two other houses on the same road, similar size and condition came on the market this year too. One reduced quite quickly and is now STC (no idea for how much) but advertised at the same price that the original one is on at. It is on the side of the road that has fantastic views though so that's probably a factor plus it hasn't been on the market for years! If the sellers of the 'original' property had advertised it for what is on for now, perhaps even a bit more, they would have sold and moved on years ago. They will now get less as they market has fallen. It's a shame for them.

That sounds like a total mess! Poor house. It would have been better if they had not done the work. Now it will be a very expensive 're-do' for someone, but only after a huge reduction.

I agree that it the higher interest rates were easy to predict back in 2021, when they were at zero. However, I think it's very unfair to blame people that I consider the victims of the housing market as it has been for several decades. The people, mainly younger adults, often with children to support had two poor choices. Either continue to pay expensive rent and have no stability, with the possibility of uprooting their family, taking children out of schools, etc or take on a large mortgage debt at current rates and hope that prices would continue to rise, as they mostly have in recent history. Most people don't have the option of living with their parents forever and being constantly supported.