Home sellers cut asking prices on more than 3,000 properties a day on average in Britain during September, according to figures from Rightmove shared exclusively with the BBC. The property website said the total was the highest of any month for 15 years and was driven, in part, by a glut of homes on the market and some sellers setting unrealistic expectations. The proportion of listed homes that eventually had a price cut peaked in 2023 and has remained relatively high since. Property portals say buyers are now having to be choosy, with many working to a tight budget as mortgage rates have risen to three-year highs.
“Once a home has been on the market for a while and then has a price reduction, some buyers start asking questions, even when there is nothing wrong with the property,” said Colleen Babcock of Rightmove. “In a market with so much choice, first impressions matter.” Rightmove data said the average price reduction was nearly 7% – the equivalent of nearly £21,000 cut from a typically valued home. Its data showed that homes that had a price reduction typically took 119 days to find a buyer, compared with 39 days for those listed at one price. The proportion of listed homes that had a price reduction stood at 34% in last month, only slightly lower than the recent peak of 36% seen in September 2023.
Rival property portal Zoopla said that buyers were in the driving seat, and were being more cautious and selective about the properties they viewed. With mortgage rates at a three-year high, Zoopla said buyers needed to keep monthly mortgage payments affordable. So, while the number of homes for sale was up 5% in September compared with a year earlier, the number of sales agreed had fallen by 9% over the same period, its figures showed. September also tends to be the month with the most cuts to asking prices as sellers often want to complete a sale by the end of the year.
Zoopla’s data showed that a quarter of newly-listed homes in September had previously been listed for sale in the last year. Six in 10 were returning at a lower asking price. The problem for sellers was that these homes were taking longer to sell. Properties that needed a price reduction were half as likely to find a buyer within the normal three-month timeframe, according to Richard Donnell, executive director of research at Rightmove. ‘Our flat has been for sale for four years’: Why is the market so weak?
You need £17,000 for a first home – here’s how to save it Sellers who have contacted the BBC’s Your Voice have pointed to the difficulties created by lots of homes on the market, and extra problems for those selling leasehold properties in England. One, who was selling his late father’s home in south Wales, said: “The market is dead. Lots for sale; no-one buying. No-one thinks it’s going to get easier.” Tarah Lourens, chief operating officer at Rightmove, said that “emotional” factors influenced sellers pricing a home – as they “put a value on the time and money they have invested in their home”.
But she said that buyers simply considered everything they could buy at their budget. Agents said that valuations now drew on huge amounts of data. Craig Webster, of Tiger Sales and Lettings in Blackpool, said that getting an initial price correct when new to the market was crucial. “That’s when you have the greatest opportunity to capture the attention of active buyers,” he said.
Katie Griffin, from surveyors Sawdye and Harris in Devon, said that having to correct a price could ultimately lead to a seller accepting less than even a revised asking price. “The property may already have been online for several months and buyers can start asking why it has not sold,” she said. But Andrew Boast, chief executive of SAM Conveyancing, said sellers might still not be losing out, if they had negotiated aggressively when buying the home and had seen it rise in value while they owned it. In Scotland, the Home Report system, external requires an independent valuation of a home before it is put on the market.
Donnell, from Zoopla, said the system gave sellers a guide to pricing. As a result homes sold at a faster rate than anywhere else in Britain. His data showed that 74% of homes in Scotland listed during April, May and June sold within three months, compared with 30% in London. He said that higher prices, stamp duty and some people – including landlords – not needing to sell meant that listed homes were less likely to sell in southern England.
Graphics by BBC data journalist Tommy Lumby Have you had to reduce the asking price when selling a property?
