London flats: does a high service charge kill the deal?

[MaraSage]

I sampled London apartments marketed between £546,000 and £819,000 while trying to make sense of the reported 5.7% price movement. Median marketing time was about 41 days, although differences in condition made the overall picture noisy.

There seem to be more listings, but few I would actually buy. What I cannot settle is the effect of service charges: are buyers using a high charge to negotiate the price, or simply rejecting the flat? I’m also wondering whether completed sales and withdrawn listings would be more informative than asking prices.

 

[SunnyKey]

Usually the service charge itself is not negotiable with the flat seller, so the buyer’s choice is to reduce the offer or walk away. I would not draw much from a London-wide sample, though: neighbourhood boundaries, condition and buyer financing can overwhelm a small set.

Can you separate recent completed sales from withdrawn stock and note when each price cut happened? That should help distinguish motivated sellers from listings that merely sat for 41 days.