If you have recently sold or are currently selling a £1m+ house.....

[Popcorn76]

how long did it take you to get viewings after going live on Rightmove?

Also how many viewings did you have, and if sold, how long did it take to get an offer/sale?

We are early in the process at the moment (only went on Rightmove yesterday) but I just have a bad feeling about the whole process as the agents seem v. negative about the market and nothing round here seems to be selling. We are in the South East.

I’ve been helping an elderly relative who’s just gone on the market. I think it went online on Monday, first viewing was this morning but said it’s not for them.

Similar to you, house in SE, and fairly expensive. The added difficulty with theirs is it’s 400 years old and completely unique so v little to compare it to price wise. It’s a beautiful beautiful house but it needs to find the right person to come along and love it- old houses cost a lot more to maintain so they are not the logical choice.

The 'south east' is a big place, in one town things can vary road by road.

The market is tough, mortgage rates have spiked, and general confidence is low.

But desirable properties that are sensibly priced should be fine. It is definitely not a market for optimistic pricing.

In some cases all the gains of the COVID/1% interest rate era have been wiped off and we're back to 2019 prices. Which is likely to come as a shock to people who bought at the height of 2022.

However, if you're buying and selling in the same market the damage should be less noticeable.

I’m in the SE and the market is very flat. Properties at the top end don’t seem to shift very readily. A house nearby has been on the market with different agents, for about a year.

People are understandably hesitant with CoL, the situation in the world generally and uncertainty about jobs and interest rises. Obviously, the market for expensive houses is less anyway.

Mine has been on about a month for OIEO £4m. Had 5 viewings within the first week and one booked in for 23rd but no offers. I can’t see it selling anytime soon. I’d quite like to move so if the next viewing doesn’t result jn an offer I’ll drop the price. The problem is you have to drop it a significant amount as the usual £10-50-100k won’t make any difference!

Thanks all, I am feeling nervous as I have not heard anything from agent at all, 1 day post Rightmove. I think I was lucky in the past as all our previous cheaper houses sold before going on Rightmove. I told our agent to price lower than what they suggested as I am quite happy to take a reduction as long as we can negotiate one on our future purchase. Valuations were all over the place though, in the end we went with the middle agents.

I guess though more expensive properties, even in good markets, always take longer to shift due to a smaller buyer pool.

We sold a probate house valued at 1.7m which was on the market for over two years. Kept reducing price. Got more interest at around the 1.5m mark but still couldn't shift it. Eventually sold after 3 years for 1.1m.

Again, it was a bit of a niche property. Not a modern house but not particularly old, with lots of land and outbuildings. Had potential but the pool of buyers at that price range, wanting that sort of house is so small.

We had two houses at that sort of price in our road. One was Grade 2 listed and the other was 10 years old. Both were priced to sell. That is key. The Grade 2 listed was lots of little rooms but very desirable for the right buyer.

Both sold within 2 months recently. One had a compelling reason to sell and the other less so but both were realistic.

For nothing other than my own sheer nosiness....please post a link....

Not me but a house I love the look of recently went live on Rightmove for over 1mil, was sold within a month

We're in Surrey and trying to sell our family home for 1.6m, to downsize. Finding the market is very slow. We've had 8 viewings now, spread out, probably a couple every 2-3 weeks. Someone offered early on and seemed keen but they were looking to move out of London and I think they changed their minds about that, didn't get the school they wanted, someone recently is wanting to offer but isn't yet proceedable, a couple of others have shortlisted it to their last two but gone for the other. We feel our buyer is out there but are having to be very patient! We're not desperate to sell and could stay for another year or two, but would prefer to sell if we can.

We had our first viewings within a week of going onto Rightmove but then the others have trickled in over the weeks. There are so many other houses for sale around us and few are selling. Some do but it seems fairly random.

I think it totally depends on area. Our house sold late last year without even hitting Rightmove. The EA set up 4 viewings before even taking photos and we had two offers right away.

BIL has a similarly priced house on the market 500 miles away and has been on the market for 18 months, and has substantially reduced the price and is considering doing so again.

I don't think there is much point trying to compare your sale to those of others. It will depend on the area and what asking price people chose.

Larger homes in London and the South have generally been falling since the end of 2022 in many areas. If you want to sell, price it keenly to attract lots of initial interest. If not, you may end up reducing it one or more times, having a tired looking listing, and quite possibly chasing the market down.

@JustAnotherWhinger I think last year was different to now. The Iran war, with the rate rises and further deterioration in the economy seem to knocked the stuffing out of the market even more.

Haven't sold - but we are watching the local market in that bracket near our house on the south coast. Occasionally a new listing will go under offer quickly if it has some really special usp's - but usually they sit around and are eventually reduced (sometimes multiple times) or are withdrawn from market. What was already a small pool of buyers has shrunk very noticeably since borrowing costs normalised and cost of living increases bite. The reductions seem to be getting bigger lately and happening faster.
A quick example - a smallish riverside property came on for sale at the end of March. Exclusive position and well maintained home - but a bit small. It was listed at 1m. By the end of March it had been reduced by 100k and we suspect that's because of no viewings. Last week it was reduced by a further 75k. So its now down to 825k. That particular property I expect will sell as the vendor seems to be recognising the changes in the market and adjusting quickly until they find the right pricepoint. Which will probably start with a 7. So somewhere between 20% and 30% less than the agent's initial listing advice. We have seen plenty of others sit at the same price they were first listed, or make small reductions and then are eventually withdrawn from the market.
As always its area dependant but here that price bracket is getting a beating - its likley to get worse as we are forecasted to get 2 more interest rate increases and another round of inflation this year. Wish you luck op.

"Valuations were all over the place though, in the end we went with the middle agents"

To be fair the lower estimate may still be a bit optimistic, you will know soon enough if you dont get viewings or offers. I would just hang tight for 3 or 4 weeks first. It only needs to tick enough boxes for one buyer who can afford. Buyers in that bracket are still active - but the numbers are obviously reduced due to affordability changes. If you dont get any promising sniffs after a month, have an honest conversation with your agent, specifically ask them at what price do you need to be to attract multiple bids. That number will give you a much better idea of value than a conversation where you maintain an attitude that suggests to the agent that you need as much as possible for the house. Obviously everyone wants the best price possible but knowing where the line of really attracting interest is can be helpful.

The talk is that the dynamic with Iran has shifted to them having MORE power than before they were attacked, that means rates going higher for a lot longer, maybe a return to the pre-central bank manipulation era where a 10% mortgage deal was considered decent?

Demand has fallen in many areas, multiple bids sometimes don"t happen now.

I just bought a property listed for 1m+. I negotiated 200k off. Probate flat in London. Amazing location - a little dated but I’m super condition. Flats in the same block at 1m + are not selling as they are in poor condition. OTOH, I’ve seen modernized flats selling at very close to asking.

Nice discount, a lot more of that is going to be happening I think.

We sold off market to the first person to view, in London. There aren’t loads of buyers at the moment but the ones who are looking tend to be the ones who are really keen and committed to buy.

Neighbourhood friends (London) had theirs on for a year at £2m without getting even a nibble. It's a lovely house, but I think overpriced, although the neighbourhood seems to be faring ok in general. Theirs is terraced and they did a lovely reno, but it's extremely vertical over 4 floors, so too many stairs for older downsizers and a poor layout for people with young children. They bought it for around £1m 10 years ago. I think somewhere around £1.4 is more realistic.

Friends have just reduced from 2.3 to 2.1. Very few viewings. Market definitely cautious here, SW city

We are more towards SW than SE but on the lookout for houses in that price bracket ourselves for our next move. I've seen lots come on at £1-£1.3m over the past 18 months and just languish for a while before dropping price again and again and ending up under £1m. Estate agents don't seem to be pricing taking into account the current flat state of the housing market.
Check recent sold prices around you for similar houses. If there aren't any/many comparative ones, look at the price per sq metre of sold properties in similar condition and work out your house value from that.

I’m West Country. Planning to downsize. House was valued last year by 3 agents £1m, £925k and offers over &900k.
I chose the middle agent , due to their excellent reputation locally. As it turned out I didn’t go on the market until April this year and after a little off market testing we decided to list at a “sensible” price of £895k to reflect the change in the market and encourage interest. I think the price we settled on was pretty good as in 2 months I have had 25 viewings (and many, many more enquiries) however only two of these viewings led to actual offers. One very low ball from someone who it turns out was putting low ball offers on a number of properties locally hoping to snag a desperation bargain I guess.

I’ve just accepted a different offer of 6% less than the “sensible” asking price I listed at, which is obviously quite a lot less than the original valuations! But I am happy because the purchasers absolutely love the house (it is 400 years old with all the associated quirks and issues that entails, so not everyone’s cup of tea) and they are in a good position having sold their own property. Please god may the survey go through ok 🤞🤞🤞

I do recognise though that I am in the lucky position of having a lot of equity in this house and I am downsizing which probably makes it easier for me to accept a lower offer than maybe the house is worth on paper. Sellers with different circumstances may find it much harder to accept a lower offer.

In all the many viewings I only had 1 that said it was overpriced (and when asked if they would be interested at a lower price they said no they wouldn’t be interested at any price 😆). A couple of other viewers didn’t like the road nearby. Overwhelming majority were very positive but had either not managed to secure sales for their own properties so not in a position to offer or felt the “project” of a listed building was more than they could take on.

My agent has said that in normal times a large proportion of buyers looking in my area would be people looking to move out of London but this pool of buyers seems to have largely disappeared due to them being unable to sell their own houses for the prices they want. People can’t or won’t accept the 15-20% reductions that are currently needed to shift their properties, so are choosing to sit tight instead. This does seem to ring true in my case, the vast majority of my viewers were local not London (whereas the 3 neighbouring properties that were sold here between 2021-2024 are occupied by London families!).

'Estate agents don't seem to be pricing taking into account the current flat state of the housing market.'

Exactly this. The market, in most parts of London, has been falling for several years but estate agents and sellers still don't seem to have realised it so are listing at too high asking prices and are then surprised when they have no or little interest. Perhaps the current geopolitics, resulting higher rates and all the coming ramifications might open their eyes but who knows!