r/UKHousing

Some of the mansions and penthouses in London’s most desirable neighbourhoods have lost more than a quarter of their value over the past 12 months, according to official data.

High-end estate agents in the capital blamed the “prime” housing market slowdown in areas such as Mayfair, Marylebone and Little Venice on tax changes for so-called non-doms last year, which prompted many wealthy individuals to move to other countries.

New data from the Office for National Statistics, published on Wednesday, showed that house prices in inner London boroughs fell by 8.3 per cent in the 12 months to June.

In some areas, the declines are much more stark. Prices in Westminster, for example, which includes affluent districts such as St John’s Wood, Belgravia and Mayfair, dropped 25.4 per cent year-on-year, while they slipped by 20.4 per cent in the City of London and by 14.7 per cent in Kensington and Chelsea.

Buying a 1970s detached home, sellers put spray foam in the roof 9 months ago. Mortgage lenders want it to be removed.

Seller is asking to split the cost of the removal. If it was historic and they didn’t know better I’d be inclined to just go for it, but they did this with awareness of mortgage lenders hatred for it.

Any experience with this kind of scenario? Thanks

We're sold STC to ftb. We agreed a 10k reduction in price from £257,500 to £247,500 as we want to move and the housing market, as we know, is slow. They've come back the with following after their L3 survey:

As mentioned, we've now been through the full building survey on ..., and there are a few items flagged for further investigation before we can progress toward exchange. Wanted to run through what we need and a couple of ways it might be easiest to sort.

Rayburn & Heating System

The survey couldn't test the Rayburn, so we need to establish their condition and function. We already have the chimney sweep certificate, but what we're really after is any service history specific to the Rayburn and records that speak to condition and how it has been running. If that's not something the vendor has, we'd be happy to arrange for an independent engineer to visit and inspect both instead.

As for Friday, the Rayburn inspector is no longer available. However, if supporting documentation can be provided, an inspection may not be required after all.

Woodworm

The survey noted evidence of woodworm to the roof timbers and the underside of the staircase, and recommended a full inspection before proceeding. As the vendor is the current homeowner, a company offer free surveys, so it may be quickest and most cost-effective for them to get this booked directly, since it would come at a cost if we arrange it ourselves.

Drainage

The survey identified standing water and debris within the drainage chamber and strongly advised an inspection. Dyno-Rod could likely undertake a CCTV drainage survey at short notice, so it may be most straightforward for the vendor to arrange this directly, if they are able to do so.

Damp

The survey also recorded elevated moisture readings and recommended an independent damp investigation in line with the current industry standard (JPS 2022). We'll arrange this ourselves rather than asking the vendor to sort it.

Roof

Lastly, the survey flagged several slipped and damaged slates on the main roof. We'll get our own roofer out for a look and a quote, just flagging it so you're aware it's in motion.

Happy to discuss any of this further, just keen to get these moving so we can progress.

* The woodworm was treated 17 years ago, and we have a certificate with a 20 year guarantee. The surveyor only poked his head into the loft as it's not boarded out.

I'm worried that they're going to try a negotiate more money off. We've already provided an new EICR and had 2 chimneys capped and a new chimney pot places at a cost of £900 to us. We've said that if they want to pay for a CCTV drainage survey, go ahead, but we've had no issues.

Am I worrying for nothing?

The house I am buying with my partner has been valued by the mortgage lender this week. They’ve said it is not worth what we’ve offered (385k) and will only lend 300k.

We are pretty devastated. We love this property and requested to move our job locations etc especially.

The valuation is confusing us.

The property is semi-detached three bed two bathrooms, needs a lick of paint but is currently functioning as a holiday home (so is in decent condition). It also has ample outdoor space, is in a really sought after (pretty expensive) area and is attached to a historic heritage site / estate which has public gardens etc.

We’ve had a RICS Level 3 survey completed and there are no structural issues, just usual damp associated with a Victorian property.

My only guess is that the highstreet lender doesn’t have similar properties nearby to gauge the value of ours as it is one of a kind in the area? Even so though, similar size properties are going for mid 300s and they do not have the same historic value that this property has or closeness to amenities (it is pretty much in the centre of the town while still being quiet and hidden away).

We are waiting on details from valuation, but please can anyone who has been in a similar situation give advice?

We really want to make this work but just do not have the money to bridge the gap ourselves upfront.

I bought a flat only last year. It's a 1 bed in London, and I bought it brand new. So, Two year new build warranty is still applicable for another 9 months.

Of course, one month into living in my new flat, I meet my bf. We are one year into dating, want to live together, but the flat is on the small size for two people.

I wouldn't normally already consider selling, but instead rent it out. However, I keep thinking about the new build warranty and devaluation of the property. How much will this impact resell value when the warranty runs out? Should I sell or keep?

I also gathered I probably made a mistake purchasing new and am looking at devaluation anyway, no need to repeat that.

Value flat 450k, new build.

Rental expectation 1.9k pm.

house has been on the market since march, viewings have been sporadic but consistent but no bites yet, house is priced competitively for the area - market just seems in a weird place right now.

start of the process we started looking at ‘next houses’ in the area we want to move but not even bothering now as they go up and are quickly snapped up whilst we can’t do anything

I live on the last floor of an apartment building in Shoreditch, there is this recurring toilet-like smell at specific times of day. Where would this be coming from? How can we resolve this issue??

Seen this floating around a fair bit so worth clearing up. Since May you can’t require a tenant to get pet insurance as a condition of saying yes to their pet request. That bit got dropped before the act actually passed, so if you’re still telling tenants they need insurance to get approval that’s a prohibited payment breach.

Blanket no pets clauses are also dead, you have to actually consider each request. You’ve got 28 days to respond and can only say no for a real reason tied to the specific property or animal, not just a general preference.

Protection against actual damage is still just the normal deposit process, nothing special added for pets.

Anyone had a pet request come in yet since the rules changed?

8 years ago (2018), my boyfriend and I purchased a starter home. A small two bed mid-terrace on a nice street, five minutes walk from a main line station into London. It was on for £295k, we viewed and loved it, offered below asking and eventually settled on £292k. At the time we were both commuting 5 days a week, so our second bedroom was guest bedroom / man-cave with gaming system.

We've maintained it well, replacing the boiler, updating the flooring, the garden. It's been our home through a pandemic, through redundancies, he carried me over the threshold when we came back from our honeymoon. But we reached a point where it was time to move on.

We've been trying to sell on and off for a while, and I'm just feeling absolutely battered by the whole experience.

Late 2023 we accept an offer for 340k from a landlord. They pull out two weeks later. We decide to take the property off the market over Christmas and focus on wedding planning / getting married.

Autumn 2024, we're ready to come back on at 340, new agent. Viewings, but no nibbles. We drop to £330k, no luck. We come off the market early Dec.

Jan 2025 we relaunch with a new agent at £330k. They get four viewings in as many months.

May 2026 we see a house we really love. We tell our agent to drop to £320k to be more competitive. At this point it's the lowest priced house on the street, and within half a mile of the train station. We don't sell in time, the house we like finds a buyer. We serve notice to agent number 3.

July 2026 we relaunch with agent 4. They book five viewings in six days and get us our asking price of £320k, first time buyer. Our dream home loses their buyer that same week - we view again and put in an asking price offer, which is accepted. It feels like it's all coming together.

Less than a week later, our buyer drops out. Our agents push hard but we can't secure another one. We drop to offers in excess of £300k to try and push a quick sale. It doesn't happen, our dream home goes back on the market again at possibly the worst time of year for any of this to happen. More viewings, and finally one offer from a no chain cash buyer... of £270k. All calculations for our next home were based on at least getting back what we originally paid.

I'm 33. I want a family (and our current home can't accommodate one, our spare room has to be my husband's office as he is fully remote, and I'm now WFH 3 days a week - both under NDA from different places so we can't share a workspace). We've been messed around so much already, we've lost two buyers. This is exhausting. We did everything 'right' - we worked hard, we saved, we didn't overextend ourselves on our first home. And now I'm just expected to eat £20k in lost equity? Is anyone else experiencing this?

This is a rant - I know this is reddit but please don't be snarky or unkind because I am absolutely at my limit

https://preview.redd.it/04sziql7u5kh1.png?width=585&format=png&auto=webp&s=a400e57ad6c1374e788b5ef73296556e4dc25133

Found this new listing on rightmove of a semi-detached house in Tooting for £540,000. This seemed way lower compared to the average house price of the area - that is until you look properly at the pictures! Have spotted a number of things, but wondered what else people would flag before even inspecting.

Unsure if one could even fix the structural issues without basically starting again.

Interested to hear peoples thoughts.

3 bedroom end of terrace house for sale in Furzedown Drive, London, SW17

Moved into a new house last year. Over the summers our neighbour has been mowing our shared front garden (small sized) once a month without us having asked this. Recently, this got mentioned in front of my uncle who was livid about this. He said it’s been incredibly rude of us to let our neighbour continue to do this. Just to add, we have had our first baby 4 months ago and life has been busy since. Our neighbours are friendly and polite with two older children.
We are relatively new to UK and weren’t sure if it is actually considered rude or arrogant in british cultural context and whether we should apologise. We have thanked them for this a few times.
We were planning to get our own grass cutting machine etc and do it ourselves anyway.
We belong to BAME community and were worried how our actions would have come across to our neighbours. It would be amazing if i can have some insights into this predicament.
UPDATE: thank you to all your responses. It’s been incredibly helpful to know that what happened was okay and not outrageous on our part. This has eased my anxiety off. We will bake them a cake and definitely order a lawnmower soon.