How is the property market around you currently?

newsgroupmonkey_

Was literally just having the same conversation with the wife. We hit lucky.

We had a really huge radius to cover - from Poole in the West to Bognor in the East.
Our only wants were 3 bed bungalow in a village within about 15 miles of the sea. Our budget was fine - my wife works in the profession and we know it was easily enough.

There are a lot of older folk living in villages along the south coast and this area literally covered tens of thousands of suitable properties.

Yet we were getting around 1 a week coming on the market. We were very close to buying something that didn't really suit us, such was the problem with it.

We hit really lucky and arguably overpaid for what we have. Fortunately, our buyer overpaid by around 10% IMHO, so our mortgage didn't go up.

Slinky

How long was your property on the market for OP? It's unlikely your purchaser only started looking to buy a property 3 weeks before offering on yours, therefore they're going to have to accept the fact it's going to take some time for you to find something you want too. You can only buy what's up for sale when you're in a position to be able to proceed.

Bonniepurple

Ours is very mixed. Some houses are selling very quickly but most are hanging around.  There’s about 3/4 properties within spitting distance (literally- new builds!) of each other which have all gone up for sale which I suspect is more to do with Help to Buy than people wanting to move.  There’s also some ex rental properties coming up.

What’s really annoying is that there have been a couple of houses that were perfect for my brother-but people have had the audacity to buy them before he’s proceedable.

strawb_shortcake

Mixed, few houses coming on in my preferred area, houses that are coming on seem a bit overpriced in general. Seeing some big reductions, one bungalow has gone from at least £320k to £285k 
South glos area

daveyjp

Any property in my area which isn't sold within a week is either overpriced or has a problem.  House opposite had a board in the garden on Monday, today its now showing sold.

What is however taking time is the process.  One neighbour who sold in February has just moved today, two other neighbours sold at Easter and neither have moved yet.  

Stubod

....could be worse, we have been looking for over 2 years, and not even seen anything worth viewing yet......

Bonniepurple

strawb_shortcake said:

Mixed, few houses coming on in my preferred area, houses that are coming on seem a bit overpriced in general. Seeing some big reductions, one bungalow has gone from at least £320k to £285k 
South glos area

We’re a few miles away in Gloucestershire (south)

MobileSaver

booksandbikes said:

Our buyer wants a quick completion, so feeling the pressure. It's all about timing.

Is it feasible for you to break the chain? I.e. continue with your sale and move in with friends/family/airbnb temporarily until you can find your ideal home? Doing so would make you a very attractive buyer when your perfect home does come on to the market.

We did this years ago and it turned out to be one of the best things we ever did. We stayed in friend's and family's spare rooms for a few months so as not to lose our buyer and then were in a great position to purchase our dream home at a bargain price.

BungalowBel

Our rental flat sold straight away to the first person who viewed it.  It's very much in FTB territory.

Where we live, properties also sell very fast.  Most sell within a couple of weeks.  Family homes, mainly semis.
I do know of one bungalow that has been for sale for over a year.  It is overpriced for the size and the odd layout and terraced garden.  My friend looked at it when she was buying - she has now been in her new house for a year!

GrannyKate

My property sold suddenly after several months of no interest.  During that time a number of suitable properties for me came and went.  I felt under some pressure to find somewhere and revisited several that had been lingering on the market (usually with good reason) and eventually had an offer accepted on one that was not on EA sites yet.  I have had to pull out of that because of surveyor concerns but fortunately a property I viewed informally months ago, and liked very much, is now available for sale and I am going ahead with that. You certainly need to do lots of research yourself these days to find a property - EAs don't always tell you about ones coming up even when they know you are ready to proceed.  Driving round the streets you like and talking to people about their neighbourhood often brings more properties to light.  I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed but this will definitely be my last move so I need to get it right.