shortage of property - FTB difficulties

chickenist

Question: why are there so few properties on the market at the moment (at least in London) and why are there so many people looking to buy them, often meeting the very high asking prices? Everything even remotely within reach of a FTB which doesn't require total doing up (difficult when any ounce of spare cash has to go into the deposit) is bought within minutes.

Does anyone foresee this changing at any point, ever?

goldbyron

I am a seller in North East London and I agree there was a shortage but this seems to be changing in the last 1-2 weeks with more properties coming on the books (interestingly not many houses b/w 350-500k though - which is a standard price for my area). My flat doesnt need total doing up and has been on the market for 4 months yet I am willing to consider any offers (well not really low ones obviously). From my perspective it is a buyers market still - in my area buyers seems to be taking their time viewing everything before putting an offer in on anything. What part of London are you searching in? There may be certain areas where demand is incredibly high.

Fire_Fox

I understood there was a surfeit of empty new build 'luxury apartments' in London??

princeofpounds

There are few properties for sale because the cost of owning a property for most people, a mortgage, has become ridiculously cheap to bear and the banks have been supported by the taxpayer instead of having to liquidate their repossession stock in order to recapitalise. Employment has stablised so there isn't that wave of people unable to afford any mortgage either. Plus people are not finding mortgage availability all that easy so aren't moving and creating spaces on the ladder.

Will this stop? Probably yes, whenever inflation returns and interest rates have to rise to counter this.

As for the question asked by the other poster, yes there are loads of generally quite crummy new builds standing empty at the moment around London (mostly in less desirable locations so they aren't evident to the daytripper). But in a lots of cases they are either being sold to local authorities for council housing, or have sold a first phase and are sitting on the rest, or moving to rental (like one near me) , or are being put into shared ownership schemes.

I don't believe there are lots of buyers chasing these properties at the moment, but there are some and the small amount of property for sale means that they are all looking at the same stuff.

chickenist

Interesting. Thanks for your replies.
Goldbyron – looking in South East London. I hope you're right! Demand does seem to be very high at the moment but maybe with spring coming that will change. Good luck with selling.

Princeofpounds – that makes sense. It is very frustrating but I guess will just have to keep looking – I'm after a home to live in rather than an investment so maybe best just to ignore the wider economic issues. Ha ha famous last words!

brit1234

Lots of new properties in west London and falling in price.

Yes there are those in negative equity who can't sell but prices will resume crashing shortly

Running_Horse

Because it is too expensive to move and too much hassle (HIPs etc).

beccad

We're looking to move up the ladder from our FTB flat (in London) but we have to save up to do so, because even though we've got £60k equity (theoretically) in our flat, this doesn't meet the 25% deposit for the next property we want to buy *sigh*.

Whereabouts are you looking to move to?