Bit of an experiment

Pete111

Potentially interesting one for the board.

Circumstances have given me a quick and cost effective way to genuinely test the housing market in SW London for a limited period.

My tenant has just given her 2 months notice and rather than immediately rent the property again (rental demand is very high) we have decide to let the letting agents colleagues in sales have a go at flogging it - if that doesn't work we will simply revert to renting it out again with no harm done or real cost incurred.

The prices in the area (Wimbledon) are pretty much back to peak and we are putting the flat on the market at 40% more than we paid for it in 2004 - a price the agent feels is realistic rather than optimistic....but I guess we shall see.

We do not need to sell and as such (and for the reasons above) there will be only be a limited window (6 weeks) where it will be up for grabs.

I will keep you all informed

Running_Horse

Vaguely interesting...if you live in Wimbledon.

princeofpounds

Very interesting. What sort of property is it? My observation of SW London generally (and particularly the expensive parts like wimbledon!) is that asking prices have been above peak but that little is transacting. Is your place village or town?

Pete111

princeofpounds wrote: »

Very interesting. What sort of property is it? My observation of SW London generally (and particularly the expensive parts like wimbledon!) is that asking prices have been above peak but that little is transacting. Is your place village or town?

Town sadly! It's a 2 bed garden flat.

Pete111

*Update*

One week on. 4 viewings so far + one second viewing but no offers as yet. 2 more viewings scheduled for tonight and 1 on Wednesday.

Will update in a further week

P

mr_fishbulb

What sort of price does a 2 bed flat in Wimbledon go for nowadays?

Pete111

Depends a bit. In the village they easily can go for 500k+ but it's unlikely you would get that in 'Wimbledon town'

At the other end of the scale, ex local authority ones are usually 250kish. Mine is somewhere in the middle.

Pete111

Have been very remiss here and not updated on this for a while.

Long and the short of it is that despite a goodly number of viewings no offers have come in. Obviously not quite what I was hoping for but there you are.

On the plus side, my current tenant is happy to stay until the end of August and come next week we will pass over the flat to the rentals dept who will have a month to secure new tenants. I'm told rents have risen at least 5% since Xmas and that they have a number of couples already keen to look at the flat.

So, in a nutshell, a result for the bears on the sales front but a probable result for me on the rental income front. Given we have no pressing need to sell, I'll happily take that.

P

Pete111

*Update*

We were just about to rent the flat out again to a couple who were offering us a 5% uplift but had a sales offer in from what would have been the final round of viewings.

The offer is at only 4% below asking so they are obviously reasonably keen. Will push for a touch more I think...

brit1234

I would take the offer ASAP from what I am hearing are prices are starting to fall close by in Clapham Common finally which is good news.

lostinrates

Good luck Pete.