My flat won’t sell - help!

pugslife

Hello, we are trying to sell our 1 bed flat in north London and have reduced the price significantly (by £50k) since we first listed it. We were with one estate agent and had a good number of viewings and a couple of offers at just below asking price (before reducing) but we regrettably turned these down thinking we would achieve more. We shortly thereafter changed to a new agent (a much larger more well-known one) and have been with them for 6 months with hardly any viewings and no offers! We are currently in the notice period with them and have a new estate agent lined up and hoping the lack of interest is just reflective of the estate agents efforts to sell, as we are now at a significantly reduced price which is in line with other properties in the area. We are desperate to move out as we have a baby on the way and want to get any tips or advice on how to maximise our chances with our new agent as we feel completely lost. We have already reduced the price to much less than we paid for it 4 years ago and this is in line with other properties in the area, all feedback from the few viewings we have had recently has been good, no concerns with the flat itself, but lots of time wasters of people who aren’t serious about buying and liked the flat but subsequently realised they need more money (so probably didn’t have an AIP in place for a mortgage). Any advice would be really welcomed - do we just wait it out and hope the market improves in London for 1 bed flats without gardens? Thank you!

kasqueak

Have you got a rightmove link so we could see the flat and perhaps offer some “outsider” feedback?

I struggled to sell a flat last year (Kent). I think the lockdown really has made people look at their homes and the main things I think people want is:
1 - working from home space
2 - outside space 

The problem with so many flats is their often don’t have either of these things. 

It’s also a “strange” time to sell with so much uncertainty with jobs and the economy. I also think flats appeal to first time buyers and buy to let landlords - both of which the market has slumped. Also people moving out of london due to more home/flexible working isn’t going to help you right now. 

I can understand the urgency to move (as I had the same problem with an expanding family!)

You could take it off the market and perhaps rethink it in 6 months. See how things go post stamp duty holiday and how the market recovers. 

Or you change agent. Fresh photos, make it look it’s best, make it look spacious (even if it means moving furniture/stuff out for the time being). Most importantly it’s always going to be price. 

Wish you luck! 

But share the rightmove listing and that will help us provide feedback

Weathergirl_76

Hi, I’m guessing the viewings and offers happened when the market was very busy post lockdown? I don’t know anything about the London property market, but can only think maybe buyers are looking at properties with some outside space being more favourable, due to the WFH situation etc?  If you have already reduced, could it be the listing? Maybe the photos could be better? Are you able to post the link here? There is lots of good advice on this board. 

Does you advertised price states that it has been reduced? On Rightmove, it will say if the property is reduced, maybe that’s putting people off? 

You agents should only really be sending buyers who are in a position to proceed. 

lr1277

My experience may not be instructive as it is from November 2017.

I had agents around to value my 1 bed flat in the Kensington/Notting Hill area. They said £625k.

On this basis I put it on with 1 agent at £625k.

Whilst there were many viewings, no offers. So I put it on with a 2nd agent about 5 months later (some kind of joint agency setup)

I can't remember if I had reduced the price by now.

Anyway definitely reduced the price after that eventually getting down to £500k.

Still many viewings but no offers.

In September 2018, I had my first offer of about £450k.

Then the offers were like buses and I had a number offers, eventually getting upto £495k.

After accepting this offer and taking the property off the market, the buyer (voluntarily I think) upped their own offer to £499k.

I sold to this buyer at this price.

The upsides to the flat were location, 2 bathrooms and a shared balcony.

The downsides were it was above a commercial building and it needed work doing to bring it uptodate.

HTH

niceguyed

More buyers are aware of issues regarding the cladding scandal (and many lenders requesting an EWS1) as it's received much more publicity this year. Put simply flats are a risk right now and that will be in many buyers heads.
Are your lease particulars off putting, it's not just asking prices that buyers are considering. How does your service charge stack up? 
I think it's optimistic I'm afraid to lay this all on the estate agent. If you're on the portals and reasonably priced then there are other factors at work. I know you'll be kicking yourself for not accepting an offer which in hingsight was a poor decision. Not much else to say without seeing the listing.

lr1277

Just to add, I could not compare my price to similar sale prices as the previous flat in my block to sell had been in 2008 or 2009.

pugslife

Thank you all for your comments so far - here is the Rightmove link: rightmove.co.uk/property/85569349

Appreciate any feedback you can offer, thank you in advance!

pugslife

Apologies for the weird format of the link but I’m a newbie to the forum and it won’t let me post the full link yet - you may just need to add ‘www.’ at the start

pugslife

Also to add it’s a share of freehold flat (in case that makes a difference!)

HopeAndDriftWood

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85569349#/

Linked for you 🙂

TadleyBaggie

Here it is as a proper link:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85569349#/