How are September house sales looking in your area?

[2longinthetooth]

How has sept been for house sales in your area, we are in south wales, pockets are ok but slowing, others have come to a complete halt. No one is reducing and very little has come on. Its like a mexican stand off!

You mean sellers?

I think they made it easier (or plan to) for leaseholders to get to get together and manage the block themselves. Unfortunately some high service charges are high for a reason and not really possible to reduce. If the cost of maintainance and insurance and security and lifts and power and cleaning communal areas has gone up, then it’s gone go regardless of who manages it and there’s not much the government can do.

I don’t understand your response, not everyone who is mortgage free is selling their home or plans to.

The two that have been taken off the market are in my block of four, share of freehold, 998 year leases and managed/SC set by owners as directors - we bought the freehold precisely because of escalating service charges and a useless management co. Most recent SC since buying the FH was £ 2,000 and we base it on what needs to be done in the next year because of ongoing neglect.

What did your original post mean then?

I just sold a house in East London, it went under offer within a week. I’m finding it hard to buy though, I’m looking in various parts of London. Hardly anything decent comes on, and then it is either snapped up or is overpriced and sits for a couple of months and the sellers withdraw it. There are some reductions, but not loads. Overall I have noticed some more expensive areas creep into my price bracket search, but they are always compromised houses (on major roads, backing onto railways, in flood zones, downstairs bathroom, tiny cottages, no garden).

Interesting. In my little corner of South Oxfordshire we have a sea of sold signs all over. We’re family friendly, good schools, commutable to London but not as honeypot hot as nearby Henley or Marlow. I do think it’s incredibly regional but Warwickshire not too far us and on the same train line …

Watching west London from the buyer side, it does look like two markets running at once. Homes that are priced where the comparable sold prices say they should be still seem to go under offer within a fortnight or so, and then the over-ambitious ones sit and sit. Flats are the quiet part for me - the ones that move tend to be the simple ones, decent lease length, sensible service charge, a bit of outside space. Anything with a short lease or a big ground rent seems to hang about, which probably says buyers have got a lot more careful about what the mortgage lender will accept. The thing I keep noticing is how many sellers reduce by tiny amounts every few weeks, which just trains buyers to wait. A properly realistic first price seems to do better than the slow drip downwards, but I suppose that is easy to say when it is not your house. Interesting to see the south wales picture, it sounds very different to here.

@HouseHuntingAmy obv the picture here is similar in respect to realistic house prices. These sell in days, also homes that are top spec, literally modernised and immaculate, gone instantly. The ones that are over inflated are on for months even yrs. They are refusing to reduce. You can see there are a vast amount of ex rentals on as well. Saturated with terrace houses. It appears there are few middle of the road homes. 3 bed detached or semi. Its either terraces or massive 4/5 bed homes. Various pockets are doing well id say just outside the cardiff catchment. Further from cardiff is stale and stagnant. Very little coming on. Those who are reducing, their reduction is no where near their sold price so they still dont sell. People forget buyers can see what the property is really worth, what up grades have been done. Buyers are not going in blind these days. Mortgages are hard to achieve and their valuations not matching asking prices. People also dont want to do major works. Doer ups are not selling. Trades are expensive.

@2longinthetooth That mix of ex rentals and terraces is interesting, and it fits what I keep hearing about lenders - valuations coming in under asking seems to be the quiet killer, because it knocks out the buyers who would otherwise have stretched. Doer uppers not selling makes sense too, trades cost so much now that people price the work in at a scary number and then some. Hopefully the pockets near Cardiff keep your area ticking over.

With regards to doer uppers.
My relatives just had a new, nice, midrange bathroom fitted. £11k (NW England).
An average kitchen runs in at £20k, + or -.
A rewire maybe £5-6k.
For an average standard home. You have to earn £50k to pay for that, much more if you borrow the money.

Most of the shite being sold need the above, and much more. They are usually simply overpriced.

Sold ours in the Soth East in 3 weeks but it was priced competitively and very well presented with nothing needing doing. Other houses in area are sitting for months and having multiple price reductions.

Yes.

Its very slow, we are just about to complete, but same house we buying is now being marketed £20k under what we paid. We are cash buyers , l would pull out and start again but DP really wants the property we are buying.
Edited for spelling, and to add if the vendor dosent stop messing us about with completion dates l will pull out and start again

We’ve just sold my mum’s home in Lancashire - had offers within a week for the asking price (£625k), which was seen as a sensible price. But it’s a very nice bungalow on a good plot in a popular village where there is a shortage of bungalows and plenty of older, well off people, so I knew it wouldn’t hang around.

I think it’s very specific to area and type of house. The houses that are sticking locally seem to be those where the elderly owner hasn’t renovated in decades - either big houses which will cost a fortune to update or small cottages where there is no scope to extend/add value. Some of these houses are way overpriced for the work needed. Eg There’s a beautiful house on a large plot which was originally listed for £1.5m - the kitchen, bathrooms etc are obviously good quality, but from the 1980s. It’s been gradually reduced over nearly 2 years to £1m and has just gone under offer.

Slow, Sheffield South Yorkshire, my late parents house has been on the market 3 weeks with only 2 viewings.

Quite a few sold signs popping up around my neighbourhood, but I don't know how long the properties had been on or what they were asking. Anecdotally, things are slow, but a friend who lives locally just sold for what I think is a high price for her particular house. It's a lovely house, very nicely appointed and renovated, small terraced 2 bed, but very vertical, so not ideal either for downsizers or young families. She had it on last year with no good offers, took it off and sold within a week of relisting. West London.

NE Scotland, in my area houses sell via word of mouth before a for sale sign even goes up 🤷🏼‍♀️

OP, I'm in South Wales as well, but closer to Swansea than Cardiff (only just). I have been looking almost exclusively in Cardiff, for months now, and have seen just about everything in my price range. You're right about the stock: either massive 4-5 beds (mainly new) or mid-terraced, neither of which is what I want. Everything else just sits there, very little else on the market.

I suspect everything is overpriced, but no one seems willing to bring their asking price down. I saw one a few months ago which might do, but needs a complete overhaul, so is too expensive at the moment. They reduced it in June, but nothing since. Still sitting there.

I'm considering going in with a ridiculously low offer just to stir it up a bit! I continue to look online but the market is feeling stagnant.

@AngleofRepose yes same here, mind 1 came on sat and we are viewing Monday. It everything we want on paper just hope it gives me the feels on viewing.

Good luck for Monday! Let's hope we're both not looking for the same house! 😬

No id never move to Cardiff, Valley girl through and through.

Houses go in days here. Ours didn’t even make it onto the open market last year as the EA knew people looking.

There is one house in the village that keeps bouncing between For Sale and SSTC. It doesn’t seem outwardly overpriced so either the seller doesn’t actually want to sell (they’re on their 5th EA), there’s something coming up on the survey or the buyers aren’t getting theirs sold (they’re only allowing viewings from people with an offer on theirs or nothing to sell ).

Good move, show the seller very firm boundaries, probably not worth pulling out over 20k though but are you prepared to lose more as the market adjusts after you buy it?

Yes we are never moving again its a place to grow old in so dosent bother us.