Who else is trying to sell a house in London? What kind of offers are you getting.

[artichokes]

We are in London zone 2. Nice family area, lots of Tube and bus connections, good primary schools, by a park.

We bought our 3 bed house four years ago for £540k. Last year, at the height of the market, it was valued at £780k. We put it on the market just as prices began to drop. We got nowhere and I got pregnant and felt too sick to have strangers tramping round the house so we withdrew from sale.

Last week we put it back on the market at £670k (so £110k less than last summer). Today we got an offer of £550k. That is basically the price we paid four years ago. It is a £220k drop from our top of the market price.

What I want to know is whether this is a similar kind of drop that others are seeing? I am not talking about the kind of drops people expect/anticpate etc but what people have actually seen recently.

What have others found?

that's a massive drop but I'd say ignore the £780k valuation, that was Bonkers Housing Market Era. We had a buyer 2 summers ago - £355k for a 2 bed flat (£5k over asking price) but couldn't find anywhere to buy. Last yr our flat was revalued at £400-£420k. We're just remortgaging for a better deal and have been valued by their surveyor @ £355k.

Which part of London are youin?

West London, zone 2, near the river (don't like being too specific).

So your flat is back to the value of two summers ago, but our offer is the market price we paid 4 years ago. I think it might be too steep a drop, but maybe i will regret that thought if the market continues to drop. It is so hard to know.

proprtysnake your area

yes propertysnake will tell you what they've been selling for - from landregister. great for snooping!

I just think the market is v nervous and people are being real chancers. known as Cheeky Offers...I think..

But property snake just tells you about asking prices and they mean very little at the moment. I need to know what kind of offers are actually being given and hwo they relate to asking prices.

I think the accepted things is V low offer, you come back with a price, they drop a bit off that, and that's your price.

So, you go back and say you are having a larf, more like 630k, and they come back with an increased offer.

But tbh I think the assumption is is that if you are up for sale at the moment it's open season on offers.

Can you take that much off moving up the chain?

but you can see the price drops and in this market I think estate agents are trying to become more realistic

I would assume a 10% drop in offer to asking price minimum tbh .. possibly even a 20% undercut but it will depend area to area

I think realistically you could be settling around 600K

I'm not trying to be (too!) argumentative here but why is it so unreasonable that an asset that you paid 540k for 4 years ago is now worth 550k? have you improved the property a lot? I'm just playing devil's advocate here. with the exception of contemporary art, I can't think of many assets which are worth more today than they were 4 years ago.

I live in the home counties and agents are saying that prices are now around 2005 levels. A large national chain of estate agents (I think it might be Knight Frank) reckons prices will return to 2003 levels by 2009.

If you are buying something in a similar, you can hopefully get a similar % discount and you'll be no worse off. If you're trading up and get a similar discount to what you're selling yours for, you'll actually be better off!

Best of luck selling your house. I know what a stressful thing it is to do when pg.

In Clapham, houses are on the market for 710, and some are accepting offers for 560k. Even EA's are saying people will accept 650. It all depends really on whether buyers sense you have to move. MOrtgages are getting harder to obtain too, so people simply can't offer more in many cases.

I think if you get your money back, having lived in a house, worn away the fixtures and fittings for 4 years then really you've done ok.
Having said that accept £550k only if the house you are moving to is taking a similar hit.

Our flat has hopefully gone for 40k above what we paid in January 2003. Does that help?

Like you, we had it on last year, turned down an offer just before northern rock. Then took it off the market (I was pregnant), back on this May at the offer we'd turned down, and accepted an offer 50k below that. Have just had to take another 20k off again.

Oh, zone 2, North London, near park/tube.

We are just about to exchange (FINGERS CROSSED!!!) on our house, zone 2 south
Aug 2007 agents valued it £800K-£850K. We put it on the market for £670K end July, we sold it in 2 weeks for £625K. Accepted the offer in August so god knows what we would get for it now. We've been very lucky, the buyers are decent people and so far so good.

Thanks everyone.

I am not meaning to imply that I think my house should be worth more than 2004 (although we have improved it a bit). However, if everyone else in the area is still getting high offers then that is relevant. I am happy to accept this offer if can pass the hit up the chain. So far the owners of the larger houses that we want to move to are not willing to accept offers that are significantly under their asking price. I get the impression that the top end of the market is fairing best at the moment.

I disagree the top end of the market will fare the absolute worse they just maybe in a position to hold out longer.
But think percentages not pounds, if you've taken a 20% hit that that's what they need to take too otherwise you're still down on the deal.