Anyone else decided not to sell in this market?

[rootsandwings89]

We’ve made the tough decision to pull our property from the market.

We put our house up for sale in March, accepted an offer in May and found a house we loved, lost our buyer in July and have been trying to sell ever since. We’ve had viewings, reduced the price but only offers we’ve had are silly ones which means we can’t afford to upsize like we need to.

Mortgage rate increases meant the house we wanted is now unaffordable. It’s just too stressful so we’ve decided to stay put another 2 years and try again when things have hopefully settled down again.

has anyone else decided to pull their property?prop

Amazing how you know it’s not a silly offer without hearing the details

I think prices will go up again. It’s wishful thinking to say they shouldn’t. Yes, they probably shouldn’t, but they will. As will everything else. I can’t quote evidence but I’ve read around over the months.

The thing is, there’s no incentive for people at the top of the chain to sell (unless it’s a forced sale). Falling prices benefit upsizers but not downsizers. People will just wait.

Details aren't required. Price is determined by demand and supply. Demand has reduced by such factors as stagnant real time wage growth and interest rate increases...supply has increased as properties aren't selling (listed properties at 12 year high)

Nothing fundamental will change in economy over next year or two, and when you relist next year, buyers will just see that property didn't sell previously. You might get lucky with a buyer, but as a general trend the above remain a fact.

The difficulty is that the price falls are due to people deciding for a range of reasons not to buy at all, not just a small change in affordability. It’s not that people who might have bought a £600k house in 2023 are buying a £500k house instead. Theres a big reduction in people who could have bought a £600k house, and people who could have bought a £500k house aren’t doing so, because it’s not a good investment while prices are falling.

This is the type of hopium that caused this blockage..things don't happen, they happen for a reason

There are some unprecedented changes starting in the economy; the advent of AI affecting the jobs market and a possible war which will affect the economy (already events in Iran are affecting prices).

Also the sheer amount of cash you have to now waste on interest is galling, I’m not prepared to service so much more extra debt.

@MidnightMeltdownsome cant wait forever though but some will.

My attitude has definitely shifted, I always assumed I would end up in a home like my parents but I have changed my mind on what I want now. I don’t want loads of space because utilities will keep going up, I don’t want to a project because building cost/stress. I also don’t want to take on anymore debt because I want to spend that money on other things plus cost of living. I have lowered my budget by approx 200k & am looking at different properties.

Property isn’t selling now at the price houses are so I’m not sure where the extra money is going to come from for houses to increase in value.
The fact that everything else is increasing means less money to go towards housing.

Exactly, interest rates at zero was a one off, you need all the main global central banks to co-ordinate to pull that off, rates are heading back to more normal levels, people who borrowed at zero rates will just have to accept losses and move on as house prices adjust. If the "carry trade" continues to unwind mortgage debt will be a lot more expensive.

"If investors anticipate further rate increases, the funding advantage of borrowing yen becomes less secure. Overseas assets would need to offer stronger expected returns to justify the same currency and leverage risks."

https://www.equiti.com/sc-en/news/market-insights/yen-carry-trade-unwind-japan-inflation-us-stocks/

ours has been up for sale for a couple of months now with one viewing - it is disappointing. However, the way I look at it is that it is all relative - we may end up reducing ours but then the house we buy will also be cheaper.

we might take ours off soon and re-list in the new year but I remain hopeful. House prices continuing to rise doesn’t really help anyone unless you are downsizing.

I don’t think they will - not with interest rates as they are and the cost of living. However, people will always want or need to move and as long as people are realistic about what their houses are “worth” then there are buyers out there. I think what is difficult is when estate agents value your property confidently and then it’s like tumbleweed once you go on the market. I’ve seen many properties listed in my area recently and not one of them has sold. The reality is that people will have to face up to reducing the price of their house (me included- which is psychologically tricky when I only bought it 4 years ago and I don’t want to sell it at a “loss”). However, whatever I buy will also cost less so in reality it doesn’t actually matter (in fact I’m technically better off if house prices drop). This obviously is different if someone falls into negative equity.

I wonder if more will go on the market next year, as if you bought at the top end of your budget and then have to remortgage it could become unaffordable. The job market is tough and the price of everything is soaring. Doing the weekly shop makes me depressed with how much it now costs.

Or you are a banker/money lender, or politician working for Big Corp happy for the public to think they are "wealthy", even when they don"t get pay rises, the brakes are also now on for downsizers though because the buyers have dried up, you need them to release the cash.

This is exactly the problem with the market, in previous downturns it seems that everyone adjusted their prices accordingly and accepted the situation but not these days hence this stalemate situation, until everyone accepts their house isn’t worth what they are asking the market will stay stagnant.

The Three D"s will always prevail, in some situations people just want to sell and move on, the fantasy price is no longer important as reality hits. This process eventually lowers all prices across the board, it will just take another event that pushes rates up to cause a crash now IMO, if you are getting decent lower offers take them.

We put our house on the market a month ago. We aren’t desperate to move but want to upsize to something that works better for us. We have had 4 viewings but no offers yet. Either because they haven’t sold or are also considering other properties. We overpaid for our house in 2022 as it was a scramble to buy what we needed at the time and our home had multiple offers. We’ve listed at less than we bought for but can’t really afford to drop much more because it would make our onward purchase too tight.

It’s mostly a buyers market where I live. Some of the more expensive houses aren’t shifting at all. The mid range houses in popular locations seem to be flying. For example we were interested in an extended 3 bed semi in a popular area but it had around 12 viewings, sold to best and final bids in around 2 weeks of being on the market.

There isn’t much on the market that we’d like to buy if we get an offer on ours so we may have to resign ourselves to staying here a while longer.

People are very cautious at the moment and the buyers do seem to have more choice of available properties on the market but seems to be a lot of sales falling through and people taking their houses back off the market. Tough times and I can’t see when it will improve.

It is not really "tough times", houses are too expensive and need to come down in price, that makes it easier for future buyers to afford one which is the best thing for ordinary working people that keep the country running?

It isn't always a simple equation though. What you aren’t taking into account is the cost of borrowing combined with the fact people are moving between areas eg due to work or family, where house prices are not equivalent. Selling in one area and buying in another area could equate to more borrowing which is becoming prohibitively expensive for many families. People don't want to move from a high quality property to a lesser quality property but have to pay more for it, how soul destroying would that be.

SIL has just sold her basic three bed semi after 48 hours for £385k. Stockport. MIL next door to her two years earlier took four days! We were amazed.

Oh OP, we are the same. Been on the market since August 2025. Sold in October 25 but then there was nothing for us to move to. Buyer happy to wait and then we chose a new build reluctantly. Started the solicitor process and buyer went awol.
Took it off for a bit and relisted in July. Got a buyer recently and viewed 3 properties. Was literally sat yesterday weighing up the 2 favourites and about to make an offer when our buyers backed out. Absolutely gutted and so fed up of how shit everything is.

One house will be gone (my favourite) as it was a viewing day Friday and the house was stunning. The other may stick around as it needs a lot of work and is top end of budget.

So ours went back on today with new photos so O guess we will see.

It’s just impossible it seems.

We are trying to downsize. Very similar story to other posters that everyone is cautious. We’ve had a lot of viewings and some interested parties but they were not under offer and therefore not able to proceed.
Since September the market seems to have fallen off a cliff. We have made two large price reductions but still nothing.
I would usually agree that the price is the issue but our experience this time is telling me otherwise.
We will take the house off the market soon and wait for the spring - a traditionally busy time but we expected September to be busier!

What on earth is “hoping”?!

To all posters, keep watch on the UK Property Market Stats show on YT each week to see what's happening in aggregate in England and Wales. And for local sentiment, read the RICS Monthly survey. The experience will vary tremendously depending on location.