There is this terrace on Highbury Park, and at least five properties there are for sale. Does anyone know why? I’m just curious, is it mere coincidence or something else??

by DepthCertain6739

35 comments

  3. Why does anyone sell a flat or house? We sold our two bed flat on that very terrace a couple of years ago, to buy a house in Hackney, because we couldn’t afford a similar property in Highbury. What does that signify? Not much out of the ordinary…

  4. The market is falling hard, and it is hard to see in the data as volumes are through the floor.

    Speaking to a property friend last week, and he estimated his zone 1 market was down ~20%, with flats particularly affected.

  5. Highly likely those are subdivided so you’re looking at a five flats out of a hundred or so. Coincidence seems likely.

    Are they all for sale or are some to let?

  7. Some might not actually be for sale or available to rent tbf, the estate agents have left a sign up outside my flat for the whole 2 years I’ve lived there

  8. Property taxes rose this year. New tenant rights laws have scared landlords. And the housing market has dropped dramatically.

    There are some really uninformed comments here. Our LL put our flat for sale and had to lower the price by £130k and still didn’t sell it. She is a chef who moved to Cambridge and keeps trying to get her mortgage refinanced so it seems like she can’t manage to pay for her place age lives in and a rental.

    She didn’t even visit it or try to fix it up and make it show well before selling, which was really British of her. Most the viewers were not British, so that didn’t translate well.

  9. Are they really for sale? Can you find them on rightmove, estate agents’ websites etc? Estate agents love to put and leave their boards up anywhere they can get away with it. They’ll sneak it into contracts with landlords and potential sellers that they can routinely put up boards, and particularly when the front is shared, people don’t fight it.

    It’s free advertising, gives the impression everyone is with them and drives people who want to sell to sell with them. I expect that some of these properties aren’t really for sale right now, but are agents just advertising themselves in a high traffic area.

    Secondly, we are looking at a lot of properties here. These are all subdivided into flats. Every front door will have 4+ flats behind it, so a small percentage for sale is a big concentration of boards.

    Finally, yes. There is a lot of property on the market. People always want to sell, but buyers are hesitating ahead of the autumn budget. There is a pile up of property on the market right now.

    In this picture we are seeing a few different effects all compound.

  10. Landlords trying to dodge any increase on CGT in the next budget

  11. Statistically about 1 in 10 people move per year. So it is probably just a coincidence, and a bit of statistical clumping. The market is not that vibrant at the moment so sales are taking longer..

  12. Renters reform, likely increase in CGT, potential for NI on rents, an overall negative trend against small private landlords… No surprise that people are selling at the first opportunity.

  13. I’m currently keeping an eye out for whats on the market for next summer. The kind of properties coming on the market literally feels like some people are being forced to sell as they can no longer afford their mortgages since the interest rate hike..don’t know how true this is but sad either way.

  14. I think a fair amount of landlords are afraid of the upcoming tenant bill of rights.

  16. Sometimes someone owns like 10 and just sell all at once if they die or just want to cash out and chill.

  17. Agents often take the piss with how long they leave those signs up, free advertising for them.

  18. We are looking at properties at the moment and we are seeing a lot of ex rentals come onto the market – the EAs say it’s a mix of new rental laws, the change in rules around offsetting buy to let mortgage costs with rental income, and changes to non-dom rules too.

  19. Lots of it will be landlords selling up. Don’t think this is a London specific issue, similar is happening in lots of other places.

    Being a landlord hasn’t been the great deal it once was for a long time, and with the government’s new legislation being the final nail in the coffin, lots of landlords are just calling it quits and selling up.

    Because of this, property prices are remaining static in lots of areas around the country, or even going down. But rents will probably shoot up as the supply of rentals decreases.

    Now is a good time to be a buyer, especially a first time buyer, but not so good if you’re renting because you’ll soon find yourself competing for much fewer rental properties.

  20. Personal experience through work. A lot of non-doms, high earners are jumping ship for Dubai or Dublin for taxi purposes. Aided by the relative stall in London property prices and rental yield. There is fear about a small bubble bursting but also new tax legislation affecting their income so they are splitting.

  21. Hi guys, ex KF estate agent (as of Friday)

    So it’s a combination of a few things that I shall list below in order of what I believe to be the main drivers which a few people have already listed.

    – Increased Mortgage rates, people have been taking advantage of the system of cheap debt for too long.

    -Now that their tenants are not covering their mortgages and some and with the UK historically being asset rich and cash poor landlords are now finding that the asset class is just not worth it and the do not have capital (or don’t think it’s worth it) to weather the inflation storm until rates drop to something more palatable (debt should never have been that cheap, a generation or two will now need to pay for it).

    – Looming rent reform bill is a dark cloud hanging over the head of landlords and industry, whilst the intention is good the plan has not been thought out very well

    -Selective licensing being introduced (London boroughs are implementing forced landlord licensing for further tax gains) this is an additional admin and financial speedbump ≈£1000 per application/renewal , the validity of each carrying by borough.

    This could soon be effecting other parts of the UK outside of London also.

    – new non Dom tax rules (foreign investment at scale in UK property is ridiculous so screw it)

    -Increased CGT to 24%

    These are just via the conversations I’ve seen on the ground so If I have missed anything do excuse me.

    Just an extra note, I dislike the property industry and agents (especially) also – if you ever have any questions fire away .

  22. I know that street. Its always seemed a bit of a weird one to me. The street itself is quite handsome (not sure that’s the right word…) but alnost all the houses are split into flats and the flats always look a bit down at heel from the outside, like they are not looked after properly. So I don’t know – it maybe flats just don’t shift quickly on that street because of their condition?

  25. These properties are not homes, they are speculative assets. They will have been brought for absurdly high prices and now the “investors” are left holding the bag.

  26. Landlords selling up, because 1) higher interest rates mean the BTL infinite free money glitch is no longer the case, 2) tax changes brought in over the last 15 years mean BTLs are less tax efficient, see above, 3) minimum energy efficiency standards will cost them money to make these period properties not shit by 2030, 4) Renters’ Rights Bill scares them because they won’t be able to issue Section 21s and cash out whenever they want

    The rental market is still extremely hot, so HMOs especially in this part of the world are still making bank, but I suspect the economics of a smaller flat with an expensive BTL mortgage on a prime address like that makes less sense.

    Source: I live round the corner, grew up here, and many of my clients are property businesses

  29. Sometimes people see the asking price a similar property got and want to cash in.

  30. This happened in my cul-de-sac, after I sold for a very good price, a lot of my neighbours started selling.

    None of them considered that I got the price because of a new kitchen, new electrics and heating, a larger garden, huge garden room, large decking and large shed.

  31. It’s not unusual for those signs to get collected very very late.

  33. Spoke with my LL yesterday. They said they were very concerned with things happening with Nov budget that will negatively affect private landlords. The concern was that the budget will be way short and private lls are an easy target to try and raise revenue. They said they will see what happens in Nov but the changes may very well make it non viable for them to continue renting and not sell.

    Unfortunately, I’m planning on staying in London more than 2 more years so it doesn’t make sense for me to buy. May have to find another place to rent.

    There may be a glut of homes coming onto the market in the next year, private landlords selling. Should be good for sales prices, but finding a rental may be very tough

  35. A lot of landlords are selling because letting is no longer profitable.

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