Struggling to sell London flat

ThirdGuitar

Hello,

My partner and I have been trying to sell our flat in London for around 9 months, and unfortunately it just doesn't look like it's going to sell. We've dropped the price significantly, and are now marketing it for £20k less than we paid for it 4 years ago, but we are still struggling to sell it. We've been through a few different estate agents and are now starting to lose hope that we will ever sell it, particularly now the stamp duty holiday has come to an end.

We want to move on with our lives as we want to move outside of London to settle down and start a family, but currently feel trapped and don't feel like we can lower the price any further otherwise we will not even recover our initial deposit from the sale value. We're trying to consider our options for our next steps, and are considering:

- Going through a property auction website, although it seems from research online that this is unlikely to generate a very high sale value

- Renting the property out for a year or maybe two in the hope that the London property market improves in this time and then try and sell again, meanwhile renting another property for ourselves to live in outside of London. Whilst this seems like in the long run this will generate a better sale price than going via auction given the London property market for flats is in a terrible place right now, it's also a huge deal of hassle, having to move to a buy to let mortgage, having the stress of tenants in our property, and prevents us from buying another property in the next couple of years due to the second home stamp duty

Neither of the above options feel particularly appealing, but unfortunately we feel like we're in a hopeless, unwinnable situation at the minute, with no easy solution.

Does anyone have any advice on what might be the best course of action to take in this situation? Or does anyone know of any other routes we might be able to take to achieve a quick sale that we haven't thought of above?

Any advice or guidance would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Slithery

Do you have a link to the Rightmove advert?

AdrianC

ThirdGuitar said:

...
We've dropped the price significantly, and are now marketing it for £20k less than we paid for it 4 years ago, but we are still struggling to sell it.
...
don't feel like we can lower the price any further otherwise we will not even recover our initial deposit from the sale value.
...

Unfortunately, that's not something potential buyers base their purchasing decisions on...

Quite simply, demand for London flats has plummeted in the last year or two. It's driven from several directions at once, mainly...
* Fear of potential EWS/cladding bills
* Desire to get out of London post-pandemic, due to working from home

Without a link to the RM listing, there's no real way we can advise you what the likely reasons are, or the best way forward.

If there's likely to be a realistic rental yield, then sale to an investor may be your most likely exit strategy. If no investors are interested, then will it be a realistic rental proposition for you...?

The simplest options may well be to crystallise your loss now, and get out even if you do have to take a loss, or to stay with it until the market changes.

ThirdGuitar

Slithery said:

Do you have a link to the Rightmove advert?

Sure, I have sent this in a DM as we didn't want to share the link on a public forum.

AdrianC said:

ThirdGuitar said:

...
We've dropped the price significantly, and are now marketing it for £20k less than we paid for it 4 years ago, but we are still struggling to sell it.
...
don't feel like we can lower the price any further otherwise we will not even recover our initial deposit from the sale value.
...

Unfortunately, that's not something potential buyers base their purchasing decisions on...

Quite simply, demand for London flats has plummeted in the last year or two. It's driven from several directions at once, mainly...
* Fear of potential EWS/cladding bills
* Desire to get out of London post-pandemic, due to working from home

Without a link to the RM listing, there's no real way we can advise you what the likely reasons are, or the best way forward.

If there's likely to be a realistic rental yield, then sale to an investor may be your most likely exit strategy. If no investors are interested, then will it be a realistic rental proposition for you...?

The simplest options may well be to crystallise your loss now, and get out even if you do have to take a loss, or to stay with it until the market changes.

Thanks - is there any way of marketing directly to investors, does this have to be done through a specalist company?

AFF8879

I completed on the sale of my flat last month (zone 2) in order to move out to the Shires - exactly like you- and mine was only a 1 bed, which are typically the hardest (except studios) to sell. However I had multiple offers within 2 days and ended up selling to the first person who viewed. The agent told me that 2 beds are even more in demand…

So unless you 1) have a studio, 2) are trying to sell in a prime central area, 3) massively overpaid when you bought it I’d be shocked that you couldn’t sell it without making a massive loss.

As @Slithery said, a Rightmove link would be extremely helpful so others can cast their eye over it and spot things you/your agent may have missed.

tommyt-saver

Which area is it @ThirdGuitar? I'm surprised to hear that it's been such a struggle - even with ex-council 

hazyjo

Was it a new build when you bought?

Many post links here, they're open to thousands of people on rightmove anyway, so perhaps have a rethink.

george4064

Just post the RM link..

london21

For quick sale auction.
For people's tailored advice, posting the Rightmove link will help you a lot.

climbthatwallseegar

I put my 2 bed London flat up for sale earlier this year. I had 11 viewings and 3 offers within a couple of days of listing. It’s a bog standard new build. I’m not sure I agree interest in London flats has evaporated. It may have cooled a bit in 2020 but demand will always be there. 

If you haven’t sold in 9 months something is seriously amiss. Are you receiving initial interest, ie people wishing to view? If you are struggling with this first step it means the flat is incorrectly priced. It doesn’t really matter how much you paid initially or the amount you have reduced it by. A property is only worth what buyers wish to pay. The other issue is poor quality pictures but I’ve assumed you’ve had this done professionally.

If you are getting people through the door but no offers then there is a problem with the property. What was the guidance from the various EA’s you listed with? They should have collected feedback from potential buyers. 

The only other considerations I can think of are, as already mentioned, cladding and the requirement for an EW1 certificate. If your property is affected by these issues then unfortunately it is unlikely to sell but I assume a competent EA would have advised you regarding this. 

Where are you based in London?

UnderOffer

You mention you’ve been through several agents, what have they said re viewings and the lack of offers?