Anyone else experienceing a slow market in Scotland (selling)

Hintza

ProDave wrote: »

Ours is the cheapest 5 bedroom house on the market in the immediate locality. A 4 bedroom house not far away has come to market recently for more than ours. The surveyors still think that is what they are worth.

Are the more expensive ones selling?

The other factor you are failing to take in to account is the oil price. It might not affect you directly but there will be a bit of a ripple effect.

How cost effective is the house to run?

But as has been said the uncertainty generated by the threat of indyref2 will be a major factor.

Take the house off the market!

Tromking

zagubov wrote: »

God know why I'd depend on another country's house buyers to be interested in buying my house, but living in London, that's maybe something I should take on board.

Maybe you've stumbled upon the issue here.
If Scots (like you?) are seeing English house buyers as coming from "another country" that may explain the perceived drop off in English buyers.

MobileSaver

ProDave wrote: »

The "problem" appears to be the English in general, no longer want to come and live in Scotland. I would really love to hear from the English why that is?

As an Englishman living down south, around five or so years ago I was looking for my forever rural home and considered several in Scotland. If I was doing the same today Scotland would no longer even be considered thanks to Nicola Sturgeon.

Unfortunately for you that is probably exactly what the SNP wants which means there is now less demand for properties in Scotland and so, although you won't want to hear this, your property probably isn't worth as much as you think it is...

PeterPanic

Strangely enough, a friend of mine has just sold up in the SE of England and moved to Scotland. However, his wife is scottish and they have moved to where she grew up to be close to her family so it isn't a random move for financial reasons.

They have moved to a much bigger house and are now mortgage free, but they were showing me amazing houses that had been on the market for 3 years in some cases.

These houses to me were amazingly cheap, but I suppose 300k is very expensive when there is little work around that would enable you to get a mortgage to buy the property.

ProDave

Actually I'm English by birth. so I don't hate the English at all (or people from any other part of the UK) it's just my perception that 15 years ago when I moved here, a lot of English folk were doing the same, but now that does not seem to be the case so much.

I can understand not wanting to live in the country, each to their own, but I grew up in a city and I hated it, when I left home I could not wait to get into the countryside and that's where I have lived ever since.

Actually our house is very cheap to run. It has solar PV fitted when the original FIT rate was high, so the income from the solar panels pays for all the electricity. That contract has another 21 years to run, so the buyer will get free electricity for the next 21 years. So the only running cost is a tank of oil for the heating every year. But that is a strange thing, in spite of being mentioned on the sales particulars, people could not be more disinterested in it, and it would not surprise me if a condition of the eventual sale is that I remover the solar panels.

No none of the other more expensive houses have sold.

the oil price might be a factor, but we are far enough from Aberdeen that I would be surprised if that was really the issue. I can't imagine anyone who works in Aberdeen buying here and having a miserable 2 hour commute to work.

TrickyTree83

ProDave wrote: »

Actually I'm English by birth. so I don't hate the English at all (or people from any other part of the UK) it's just my perception that 15 years ago when I moved here, a lot of English folk were doing the same, but now that does not seem to be the case so much.

I can understand not wanting to live in the country, each to their own, but I grew up in a city and I hated it, when I left home I could not wait to get into the countryside and that's where I have lived ever since.

Actually our house is very cheap to run. It has solar PV fitted when the original FIT rate was high, so the income from the solar panels pays for all the electricity. That contract has another 21 years to run, so the buyer will get free electricity for the next 21 years. So the only running cost is a tank of oil for the heating every year. But that is a strange thing, in spite of being mentioned on the sales particulars, people could not be more disinterested in it, and it would not surprise me if a condition of the eventual sale is that I remover the solar panels.

No none of the other more expensive houses have sold.

the oil price might be a factor, but we are far enough from Aberdeen that I would be surprised if that was really the issue. I can't imagine anyone who works in Aberdeen buying here and having a miserable 2 hour commute to work.

Unless you find someone who supports the SNP and independence, or doesn't care either way, willing to buy your house you will be lucky if you sell it in Scotland to anyone who isn't in these groups of people. It's limiting the pool of potential buyers.

Herzlos

I take it Inverness is quite reliant on the oil and fishing industries still? It could be that if the oil industry is slowing down a bit then you might find that locals with £300k to spend on a house are a bit reluctant. You have to bear in mind that whilst it's probably a great value house, it's only going to appeal to people that need a 5 bedroom house up in Inverness.

It's the sort of place I'd like to retire to (I'm stuck within about an hour of Edinburgh), but if I was retiring I'd probably be looking at something half that size. I doubt you'd have the same problems selling somewhere further south like Dundee or Stirling.

beecher2

Properties moving very quickly where I live, but it is a completely different market and people are pricing realistically too. Your market is very limited so you either drop the price or wait for that one person who is looking for what you're selling. You can't change sentiment regarding any potential independence referendum, or whether English people are still moving to your area, or indeed the political situation.

You could post a link for suggestions on things you could change I suppose.

ProDave

PeterPanic wrote: »

Strangely enough, a friend of mine has just sold up in the SE of England and moved to Scotland. However, his wife is scottish and they have moved to where she grew up to be close to her family so it isn't a random move for financial reasons.

They have moved to a much bigger house and are now mortgage free, but they were showing me amazing houses that had been on the market for 3 years in some cases.

These houses to me were amazingly cheap, but I suppose 300k is very expensive when there is little work around that would enable you to get a mortgage to buy the property.

Thanks for a real life example.

So they bought a house that had been on the market for some time. they must have bought it, knowing of ever they want to sell it, they may face the same problem selling it. Were they happy to pay close to the asking price, or did they use the fact it had been on the market for a while to beat the price down?

Re 5 bedrooms being "to big" the other part of the story that I have not mentioned is it's 5 bedrooms with 3 en-suite bathrooms because it's currently run as a bed and breakfast. So not only is it a large familly home, it's a business as well if you chose to carry on the B&B business. Our reason for downsizing is we want to retire so want to stop running a B&B (and stop my other job) so we thought moving down to a 3 bedroom house made sense for us.

mubeye

I'm looking within an hour of Edinburgh / borders and sensibly priced stuff is selling quickly as normal. I think perhaps this is as much a remoteness issue than a Scottish issue. Have you looked at average time on market stats for the area? Would your house be likely to sell much quicker in remote Wales?