Why Are So Few Properties Being Put On The Market Right Now?

[mynamehere]

I have 6 figure deposit and looking to spend about 300k on a house, but there are very few coming on.

I'm having trouble working out why this is.

The houses that I am viewing are all getting plenty of attention and sell quickly, so the prices don't seem out of whack with affordability. Clearly people can afford to pay these prices as otherwise the houses wouldn't be sold so quickly with so many viewings .

So if houses are selling at high prices, why are more people not selling their houses?

[Wurzel Of Highbridge]

Same reason i'm not selling mine:

• Stamp duty cost
• Conveyancing cost
• The house I would move to would be equally overpriced

Nobody can afford to move without borrowing HUGE sums of money, so nobody sells.

Only a few will ever downsize as after you hit 70+ and have lived in an area, know the neighbours and have paid off the mortgage you really don;t want to move. And most likely that current generation can afford to live in a house that is to big form them.

There is a lot of stock held as speculative BTL investments, much more than the past. This stock has essentially been removed from the market turnover so sales volumes are much lower than historical records when much was owner occupied.

[nome]

I'm also really struggling to understand just why so few are coming on to the market.

The areas I'm most familiar with are Derbyshire and North Wales, both places have had only modest HPI since 2008 and in many localities prices are still below 2007 peak... so it certainly isn't the case that prices are now too high for current homeowners to be able to afford to move up the ''ladder''.

If anything bigger houses appear to be better value pound for pound than smaller houses, so combined with record low mortgage interest rates, there should in theory never be a better time for people to sell their 2 bed terrace and 'move up the ladder' to a 3/4 bed semi.

Conveyancing costs and EA fees seem to be pretty much the same as when I last bought/sold 7 years ago.

And yet the stock numbers of 2 bed terraces up to around £120k on the market have crashed by around 40% in just the last 18 months.

[Andy T]

You can't sell if your in negative equity.

Difficult to sell if your stuck in an interest only mortgage, and haven't been able to refinance.

No point putting yours up for sale if you don't meet new criteria for a bigger/new mortgage.

Waiting for HPI to enable deposit and 'move up the ladder'

[Fretful Mother]

Reasons for sale for the most recent houses we've viewed:

divorce

divorce

downsizing/equity release

divorce

divorce

fancied moving because husband died in house

divorce

divorce

partner died

moving to care home

moving to care home

owner died

children moved away and house too big

divorce

I can't hink of one instance of someone "moving up a ladder".

[winkie]

You can't sell if your in negative equity.

Difficult to sell if your stuck in an interest only mortgage, and haven't been able to refinance.

No point putting yours up for sale if you don't meet new criteria for a bigger/new mortgage.

Waiting for HPI to enable deposit and 'move up the ladder'

Don't get the bit waiting fo hpi to move up the ladder!!!!!

[nome]

Don't get the bit waiting fo hpi to move up the ladder!!!!!

I think it makes sense in my area at least... huge numbers of houses got withdrawn from the market in late 2014, only explanation can be that they all eventually realised that HPI has actually been very modest and their houses aren't worth what they'd like to think they're worth.

Obviously they're too thick to realise that if significant HPI did occur then the gap up the ladder would be even bigger.

[Andy T]

You can't sell if your in negative equity.

Difficult to sell if your stuck in an interest only mortgage, and haven't been able to refinance.

No point putting yours up for sale if you don't meet new criteria for a bigger/new mortgage.

Waiting for HPI to enable deposit and 'move up the ladder'

Don't get the bit waiting fo hpi to move up the ladder!!!!!

That's the joke isn't it, Johnny&Jayne's 2 bedder goes up by 10k, 'fantastic' profit and slightly more equity, lets trade up to a 3 bed that is now going to cost £30k more than it did previously.

There was a news story a few days ago, claiming that there was a boom in family home purchases off the back of BTL'ers overpaying for small 2 bed houses before the Stamp duty change, allowing owners to trade up.

[GreenDevil]

Accroding to rightmove CEO, people are moving up, as they have sold to BTLers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-17/u-k-house-prices-hit-record-as-landlords-spark-chain-reaction

Perhaps now the stamp duty is up, they cant sell to any mugs any more, so are staying put.

[Starla]

I mentioned on another thread 6 months ago (ish) that a neighbour had put their house on the market for stupid money. (Circa 500k, Zone 5 Greater London, unremarkable terraced 1930's, 2.5 bedder, usual blueprint design, not a particularly "nice" area).

Reasons for wanting to move;

1. More space

2. Nicer Area

They "sold" it after 4 months, but have now taken it off the market.

Reasons for not moving;

1. A fraction more space would add at least £150k to their mortgage

2. The stamp duty costs would be in the region of £22k plus other moving costs and fees

Despite "making" a couple of hundred thousand in equity, they're stuck and p*ssed off and they're not the only ones. To their credit they do recognise prices coming down would be a good thing. Clarifies to me why less is coming on the market in this area anyway. Soon to grind to a halt at this rate.