Why sellers blame “market” instead of affordability?

[JustAlice]

Just it really, why sellers are surprised properties are not selling, when their buyers’ mortgage will be double or triple of what they’ve been paying, and blame the “market”?
Yesterday I was looking at a very average 3-bedroom terraced on Rightmove (it was priced around 700K) and R suggested our monthly mortgage payment will be 4.3K with 10% deposit and 6.1% mortgage rate. Renting similar property will be 3K, better property in a better location - 3.5K tops.
For most families it’s not even a choice, they simply can’t afford new interest rates and stamp duty combined with old prices. The ones that still can afford to buy, will pick either the best value or the best price.
My rant is over 😁

Totally agree
My current mortgage £4600,
Rental value £3000- 3500.

Luckily we've sold but our mortgage rate is 7% + after a fixed rate and we're too old for a 25 year mortgage.
Stamp duty on our downsize home is almost £20k. The bank always wins.

The two correlate obviously. But uk people in general dont like to admit that their main investment, a home, is loosing value. Or that they perceive they are in a worse position than others. Home price pumping has been rife for decades - its hard to change.

Affordability is part of what is covered when people say 'the market' is to blame.

“their buyers’ mortgage will be double or triple of what they’ve been paying”

no. This is a different property. They buy what they can afford.

if you mean that a few years ago when interest rates were different then a particular property would have been affordable and isn’t now, Yes, that’s how “the market” works, in cycles.

and so does the rental market, there are times renting is cheaper than mortgage payments then the cycle goes round and the opposite is true.
With renting though that you ultimately gain nothing from your monthly expenditure. It’s frustrating!

That's what they mean by the market. The market is the outcome of bids between buyers and sellers, where a price is determined based on the exchange of information about affordability.

I’m honestly completely shocked by those figures. How do people afford it?

What kind of income would you need for that? 3 times your mortgage which is often touted for affordability is 10-12k per month take home. Take home annual salary of 120k to 144k after tax. It is absolutely insane.

I think I’d buy a caravan over giving the bank near on 4k a month, how do people even do that.

I think the comment about people never wanting to admit their homes have fallen in value is so key here.

Nobody ever wants to admit to negative equality or a loss on anything at all let alone investment or property.

we bought our home just after Covid, downsized so we made a huge gain on the one we were selling and bought smaller buys we know we overpaid on this as well and 4 years later id said we’d have to sell for 100k less than we paid. We aren’t selling but most people who moved during the covid period have lost.

The last 5 years or so housing hasn't really kept up with inflation but I think things got unaffordable before that.

@Tortephant Buying is cheaper only for freehold properties and only long term, because in the first few years most of the mortgage payments go to the bank to service the mortgage debt, so it’s about the same as paying the landlord - you don’t really build equity.
So taking up the mortgage we must be sure the house will increase its value, that’s the only way to make mortgage work.
I was ready to buy a flat, but 2026 shows that financially it’s no better than renting, even worse, as you never know when you’ll be hit with ££££ bill for repairs of roof/lift etc, not even mentioning unregulated service charges.

Most people aren’t looking to buy a house for £700k.

2bed terraced houses in our area start at above 600K, 2bed flats sell at around 530K.
I’m looking at changing my career to be able to work remotely from anywhere in 5 years as for London maths just doesn’t maths.

That’s the thing. People never could afford it. When current sellers were borrowing with 2% mortgage rate, their monthly payment was maybe 2-2500K.
So it’s not abstract “market”, it’s affordability that sank.
Sellers blame the agents, photos, curb appeal in perfectly normal houses and keep relisting, forgetting that most agents have always been useless and irresponsible but houses still were selling.

I only found one decent agent (female) in a sea of hair gel and misogynistic attitude. Our property dropped £100k in the last year but we sold to someone who had offered privately previously.We move next month and I will never buy a modern house again. It's not been a good investment but it has been easier to maintain.

Sorry, my bad. Zoopla calculates monthly payments based on 6.5% mortgage rate.
Rightmove optimistically uses 4.5% for calculations.

Sigh. A house that is selling for £700k is 2.5x the average UK house price of £272K and 1.3x the average London house price of £554k. You are looking in one of the most expensive areas in the country, if you want a cheaper house move to a cheaper area.

I’m aware of house prices in UK thank you very much :)
Just wondering how much longer sellers will ignore the obvious reason why their houses are not selling and blame the factors that have always been there - rubbish agents, plants and wall paint.
If most people can no longer afford your house, make sure to the very few who still can it offers the best value among the similar priced properties, or the lowest price among the properties of equal value.

We're at the start of a very deep correction in house prices and it's going to be a good few years before it stabilises.

The government will not step in this time to prop it up as they have done in the past.

Reality is starting to set in but it will be a while before everyone really accepts it.

I’m not sure about it. If tomorrow govt replaces stamp duty with property tax, there might be a rise in property prices similar to covid.
But at the moment, it is what it is.
If property doesn’t offer the best value or the best price, there’s only one thing that can fix it.
The only thing that will stay with us for a long time is dismissive attitude towards flats as they’ve been performing the worst this year.

Covid had rock-bottom rates, government support and a rush for space. We have almost the opposite now: expensive mortgages, stretched affordability and weaker demand.

Scrapping stamp duty might give the market a short bounce, but it doesn’t fix the fact that buyers simply can’t afford current prices. Something has to give, and if incomes and borrowing power can’t catch up, house prices will have to come down to meet them.

The market is linked to interest rates, but also current wages, cost of other utilities etc
Interest rates have gone up since 10 years ago but so have wages and utility costs. It's a balancing act.

If people put their house up for sale above what most people could reasonably afford then they may take a while to sell or not sell at all. House prices can rise or fall. You can never guarantee your house price will be higher in the next couple of years but very likely to increase over decades. It may not rise with inflation but it is very likely to go up in the long term as wages increase. You will eventually pay off the mortgage and only have maintenance to worry about. Rent will almost definitely continue to go up in the long term and there is no end point to it to look forward to but you never have to worry about paying for a broken boiler or the hole in the roof.
Where I am it's about the same to pay a mortgage as rent the same house. Areas have their own markets and some areas it's far cheaper per month to buy and some areas the reverse is true
You have to make a decision on what is right for you and the market in your area to whether buying makes sense.
I personally could never afford the house you're looking at to buy or rent

We do NEED house prices to drop

vast amounts of money going to banks and landlords

pushes up care home and nursery costs. Your nursery may be paying more in rent than they are paying in staff wages - but it’s the staff we should value

if house prices had risen in line with inflation over the last 50 years the average cost of a home would be way under 100k

think how much money you would have to spend on food and holidays if that was the case ! Most of your wage growth has gone to the bank and landlords

a long gentle correction is the best way forward to avoid the horror is negative equity

I’ve asked co-pilot and it’s saying for every 1% increase in mortgage rates your gross income should rise by about 10% to afford to borrow the same amount.
And there was only 5% growth of median annual income in the last year.

So, if house prices and mortgage rates remain unchanged, it would take roughly 3–4 years of 5% annual wage growth for incomes to catch up to the affordability lost from a 2% increase in mortgage rates.
However, in reality:

• If house prices also rise, catch-up takes longer.
• If mortgage rates fall, catch-up happens sooner.
• If wage growth slows, catch-up takes longer.

For example:
15% affordability gap ÷ 5% wage growth ≈ 3 years
20% affordability gap ÷ 5% wage growth ≈ 4 years

Why do people blame ‘bad weather’ when actually it’s the rain?

It’s more like

• I went outside and now I’m wet, what’s happening?
• Oh, it’s just a bad timing dear, try to go outside in June and wearing red shoes.

The only reason that is not mentioned is the most obvious one.