Has the market crashed?

GDB2222

We are thinking of downsizing, and the agents were pretty frank that the market is much worse now than at the beginning of the year. At that time, they were recommending "list it low, and let people bid it up", whereas now they are happy to get just one offer in.  We're in London, btw.

We have been here 25 years, and we have months of work to get the house in viewable condition before we can list it.  Goodness knows what things will be like next year!

LegallyLandlord

Prices have gone down, and I think they'll go down further. I came across a great graphic this week that shows how people can't afford what they could afford a few months ago, because of the increase in interest rates.

For Maidstone, someone could have bought a nice 2 bed Victorian house for a £800 monthly mortgage last year, but now they'll only get a run down 2 bedroom flat on a busy road for that.

I think buyers are sitting on their hands at the moment to see what happens, which is why you're not getting viewings

77588p

Thank you, I agree.

I have just spoken with the agent and we are reducing to £345,000 from tomorrow. We will likely leave it there till Jan time and consider taking off the market at that time.

propertyhunter

LegallyLandlord said:

I think buyers are sitting on their hands at the moment to see what happens, which is why you're not getting viewings

This is what I think is happening too. Talks of a house price crash are making everyone reluctant to commit, unless the house is really special you'd wait in anticipation of prices dropping further. I've seen 4 bed detached houses near me drop from £1.2m to £1.0m, and they are still not shifting. However, a run-down 3-bed detached has sold in the past two weeks at a list price of £950k, and it was run down - the difference being the location was better than the other two, and the scope for extension. People will offer to buy good houses because they don't come up often. 

RedFraggle

77588p said:

Thank you all for your comments and I agree with everything you have said.

Might look to drop the price to £340k and see what happens....

If we did drop the price and then decided to pull the house from the market, would there be a history of it being listed for 340k in case we wanted to try again next year?

Yes there would. Zoopla shows listings that didn't result in a sale but it's not really an issue. 

[Deleted User]

I think its a time of uncertainty which may or may not be a crash. 

If I was in the market to buy, i would be putting it on hold until things settle,  not necessarily expecting significant reductions though at the end if the day.

Many buyers who lost out in competition with 15 others, might now see less competition as an opportunity.

Those who have played a waiting gane until this point , have waited til interest rates have increased, with poor selection and so far prices still  vastly up on 2020 levels. 

babyblade41

From a seasoned buyer & occasional seller.. this is no different than a lot of times, peaks & troughs  over a 5 year period.

Really depends on what you want out of a property, if it's your long term home then general markets shouldn't really come into the equation, they go , they go down but usually rise over a certain period of time

If you are looking to invest and expect a short term high return then you will be sadly disappointed , 

If you want a home & love the house you are looking to buy & as long as any valuations are pretty much spot on then all is fine 

[Deleted User]

As someone who would like to buy I'm holding off for now.

I'll wait to see what pay rise, or more likely real terms pay cut, my employer offers me. Then I'll have a look at what mortgage offers are available.

I'll also look at what direction house prices are going in. Don't want to buy and end up in negative equity, or pay not than I have to.

I also want to see if this government is stable, where inflation goes, where interest rates go. The UK is in for a long recession.

If you want to sell quickly then you need to offer big discounts to offset the uncertainty and wrecked economy.

Exodi

[Deleted User] said:

As someone who would like to buy I'm holding off for now.

I think many will be doing the same.

You have many sellers, who have seen there houses absolutely balloon in value over the past couple of years (using my house as example I bought for £300k in mid 2019, and have seen similar houses for sale during this summer up for sale between £400k - £500k)... absolutely madness.

You have to wait for these sellers to come back to Earth which is not going to be quick. Take the OP - "it doesnt feel over priced compared to recent sales in the summer". This will be a common theme amongst current sellers, and if they're not willing to come back to Earth, they'll see demand disappear.

People just can not afford high energy bills, soaring food prices, increased fuel prices, with pay-rises that in most cases are real terms pay cuts, on top of ~£500 extra on a mortgage to buy someones now overpriced house.

I wouldn't dream of buying in the next few months.

lookstraightahead

Exodi said:

[Deleted User] said:

As someone who would like to buy I'm holding off for now.

I think many will be doing the same.

You have many sellers, who have seen there houses absolutely balloon in value over the past couple of years (using my house as example I bought for £300k in mid 2019, and have seen similar houses for sale during this summer up for sale between £400k - £500k)... absolutely madness.

You have to wait for these sellers to come back to Earth which is not going to be quick. Take the OP - "it doesnt feel over priced compared to recent sales in the summer". This will be a common theme amongst current sellers, and if they're not willing to come back to Earth, they'll see demand disappear.

People just can not afford high energy bills, soaring food prices, increased fuel prices, with pay-rises that in most cases are real terms pay cuts, on top of ~£500 extra on a mortgage to buy someones now overpriced house.

I wouldn't dream of buying in the next few months.

I absolutely agree, sellers and recent buyers will find it hard to acknowledge this. It's ok if you've recently bought on a low fixed rate and you're staying put for a while, but the recent rise in prices in addition to high interest rates won't sit well with most. There could be fewer properties coming to market and that's keeping some prices up, but this won't mean people can afford them. Sellers have also been quite rigid about their timescales and expect buyers to fit in with their plans while they've had the upper hand, and won't change their expectations yet.

not forgetting the all important factor of lender valuations.