Anyone else finding it impossible to buy right now?

Murphybear

gab3x said:

Come to London and look for a flat without a garden - you can practically name the price!

I bought an ex council flat years ago.  There were only 18 flats in the block, I was on the 4th floor.  No garden or outside space but it was opposite one of the London commons and the view from my balcony was lovely.  The common had one of the few outdoor lidos which was nice in the summer.

Nothing beats your own garden though. 

Toucan_toucan

Same here too. Houses are being sold before they're being listed or to people who haven't viewed them. We're actually now looking at more expensive houses as they seem to be hanging around more and not going for way over asking price because they're above the £250k mark - I'd rather get a bigger house for more money than pay over the odds for something smaller (eg we lost out on a 2 up/2 down terrace with a yard that went for £235k, we could get a 3 bed with 2 proper reception rooms and a real garden for £20k more). 

buythedip

We had a couple of months searching in the South West near Bath and Bristol. The entire thing seems completely idiotic. We’ve decided to stop checking Right Move on a daily basis and only viewing things we really like. Even the agents think things will normalise once this stamp duty cut ends. Almost all of the properties we’ve seen have been second homes oddly enough, it feels as though some smart money is selling the top. 

ElizabethRose

I think it's a lot of places right now. Locally there's a lot coming on to rightmove already marked as sold. Also prices are going crazy. The cost of a 3 bed on our street with no extension has rocketed since the new year. I think you really need to get on good terms with the agents to see if you can view the properties before they go on rightmove. Good luck. 

postcode

Been looking for about a year  circumstances changed a fair bit since we started and you'd think it would be easy! Our search radius has expanded massively (partner was given the go ahead to work from home permanently and I only need for there to be a hospital within 30-40 mins to be able to relocate) but most houses we like the look of sell before we can view. Our requirements are a bit awkward admittedly, so did expect finding "the one" could take a while, but not this long! It is getting to the point where the next house I want to view is 2 hours drive away and probably has too big a garden for us (which is why we haven't viewed it - 2 acres of grounds whilst working full time jobs seems like a bit of a stretch). First time buyers with a decent deposit, mortgage in principle, trying to make us more attractive to the agencies but... Guess the properties we want and our particular set of requirements are just too much. Might be time to win the lotto!

Angela_D_3

Might be time to sit this one out.  Most people are of the opinion things will at least settle down after June if not crash.  

If you have rented roof over your head theres no rush is there ? 

buythedip

Angela_D_3 said:

Might be time to sit this one out.  Most people are of the opinion things will at least settle down after June if not crash.  

If you have rented roof over your head theres no rush is there ? 

We’ve arrived at this conclusion. 

postcode said:

 First time buyers with a decent deposit, mortgage in principle, trying to make us more attractive to the agencies but... 

I wouldn’t worry about this. Agencies seem useless relative to the fees they command and should not be viewed as gatekeepers. The number of clowns we’ve spoken to is in the dozens. Unfortunately they’ve benefited hugely from the ridiculous government policy. 

mortgage_noob

First time buyers with a decent deposit, mortgage in principle, trying to make us more attractive to the agencies but... Guess the properties we want and our particular set of requirements are just too much. Might be time to win the lotto!

I'm in the same position, to be honest I think it puts us at a disadvantage right now. The stamp duty cuts affect us very little and there are cash/equity rich property owners upping sticks from big cities able to offer high. 

mooncake89

We're having a terrible time, too, in the SE. It's been around 6 months since we started looking and prices and demand seem to have skyrocketed to insane levels. People at the moment aren't even seeming to realise that they probably won't be able to benefit from the stamp duty holiday any more and are still rushing around to snap something up. At Christmas time we came close to having an offer accepted that was 5k under the asking price (when we hadn't even put our flat on the market yet - naïve buyers who didn't know what we were doing!) but, understandably, the owner decided to leave the house on the market and unfortunately a couple of weeks later a proceedable buyer came along. I fully believe that house would be snapped up straight away and for a lot more money if it came on the market now... I doubt we'd ever have even been allowed to view it without having sold ours first! 

 It's been a struggle to find anything that meets our requirements and like others have said, anything decent is being listed straight away as sold or we phone as soon as we see a listing (checking all the websites constantly throughout the day) only to be told there are no more viewing slots. We've had viewings cancelled because the property has been sold before we could see it, or gone away to think about a house overnight only to wake up to find out there have apparently been X amount of offers way over the asking price already. Never any contact from EAs about anything decent that isn't already listed on rightmove etc.

We offered on another house the same day as viewing it, a while back, for a fair bit over the asking price. Subsequently felt sick at having offered so much but it sounds like it went for well over what we offered anyway. It's very stressful and disheartening! For a while now we've been in a strong position... sale on our flat almost as the stage where we need to set an exchange date, a 40%+ deposit, excellent mortgage broker willing to back us up to any EA etc. but it hasn't seemed to have helped. We have even been able to up our max budget by around 100k but are running into the same problems, still (although it does seem that the more expensive houses sometimes hang around for a touch longer before being sold).

This week we've seen and loved a house which we've offered full asking price on, but the owners want to wait until the weekend in order to allow another couple a second viewing. So this one now also feels unlikely to come to anything as we cannot go any higher with our offer. We'll be sad about losing the house obviously, but also equally sad about being back at square one again. It's just tiring and brutal now... I didn't think we were being *that* picky, but it's proving so difficult to find something we love, let alone actually secure it.

At this point I'd estimate we've looked at around 35-40 houses. All either snapped up by someone else, not suitable upon viewing or ridiculously overpriced for what they were (even taking into account the nuts current market).

SpiderLegs

JJR45 said:

We completed our sale in December and could not find anything so have rented since.
People are going mad but seeing a few fall through now, I think best bet is new build with a decent completion date.
Seems like people at the moment are willing to pay £xx,xxx more to save a few thousand on stamp duty, madness.
There are going to be a lot of people who find out they have over paid in a year or so time.

That doesn’t make sense really though. I bet you can’t find one person who will tell you that the only reason they are going to pay £xx,xxx more is to save save a few thousand on stamp duty.

The SDLT holiday is just a fart in the wind.

As for over paying, well the best bet to avoid that would most definitely not be to buy a new build.