Over 40% of all UK properties currently on the market have experienced at least one price reduction, with the average chop over £19,500 – or 7.4% of the original asking price.
The amount of the discount is £3,500 more than this time last year.
Glasgow tops the list of places where the biggest discounts are on offer, followed by Newcastle and Bolton.
In Sunderland, there is the highest proportion of properties on the market that have been discounted at least once, with more than half (53.6%) of sellers having to reset their expectations downwards at least once.
Even in London, nearly a third (32.6%) of properties for sale in the capital have had to be reduced in price.
Nicholas Leeming of Zoopla said: “With the latest economic forecasts for 2012 looking decidedly gloomy, sellers may have to reduce their expectations further if they are serious about making a move.”
Comments
Puzzled...: Trust me - the LAST thing I have led - either as an Estate Agent or in my past or present working environment is a sheltered life!! ;o)
You say "I have on a number of occasions said to an agent 'I thought it might fetch 'whatever number you just said' + 25 grand' - and the agent saying in reply 'well, we can certainly give it a try at the higher figure and see how we go'." Sorry - what is so utterly wrong with that?
1) you do not give a clue as to the price band we are talking about - £25k could be 25% - could be 1% of the 'value' of a property;
2) who says that the Agent's recommendation is the optimum price achievable for the property? Have you NEVER sold a property for more than you believed it to be worth?
3) it is an Agent's duty, as defined under the Estate Agents Act 1979 to work in the client's best interests; to achieve the best results. IF a client's requirement is to initially 'test' the market at a figure higher than the Agent's recommendation, then subject to mutual agreement test the market you will. There is no law that says a vendor MUST market their property at an Agent's recommendation; likewise there is no Law stating that an Agent MUST accept instructions to market a particular property from a vendor - only that you cannot discriminate against a vendor for all the usual PC reasons.
Every property on the market has the POTENTIAL to sell. Whether it sells for WHAT the owner wants it to; WHEN the owner wants it to; and to WHO the owner wants it to, are completely different matters.
Fun Boy Agent said something akin to that a few weeks ago, but worded differently - and got a royal kicking.
Truth is - it's 100% right...
wardy: "Mind you, telling the guy to p**s off just because he had a geordie acent is a bit harsh"
Cheers, mate! Knew you were a good 'un... You ever feel like visiting the Frozen North I'll take you for some nice warm beer that'll blow your kn@ckers clean off! ;o)
Hawkeye - there's a bloke two doors away from me speaks wiv a Cockerney accent and wears a Spurs top on a Saturday. Do you think I should torch his house and nick his TV to make him feel at home? ;op
@hawkeye,
I always tell them your happy to help but will need to call them back. None of them will give you a number.Mind you, telling the guy to p**s off just because he had a geordie acent is a bit harsh :-0
@Hawkeye the company that rang you are an Internet Agent that targets reduced stock . They get the address of the internet but often cant get the house number so ring pretending to be a surveyor once they have the house number they bombard the vendor claiming they have buyers lined up etc etc after ofcourse the vendor has paid a hefty upfront marketing fee.
Headline writer- wow great post, really added value, are you still out of work then now not listening to victims phone calls?
@ Ray Evans................come to my location and you will agree our local 2 corpoeates cannot win instructions unless they overvalue, they are told by their area manager to do this and "batter" the vendor after a few weeks that word was used at a recent managers meeting.........
Headline could read at least 2 in 5 homes are overvalued when first put on the market..
PeeBee: 'Erm... sorry but I din't see any Agents hatching the 'cunning plan' above - just YOU! ;o)
Maybe you let a sheltered life when you were an agent. I have on a number of occasions said to an agent 'I thought it might fetch 'whatever number you just said' + 25 grand' - and the agent saying in reply 'well, we can certainly give it a try at the higher figure and see how we go'.
Once I have had an agent tell me 'my figure or find someone else to sell it' - and that was in 1990 after 18 months of HPC and a cull of agents from 13 to 6 in the town I lived in then. Generally, agents go along with any figure a vendor wants to try. So, my expression 'aided and abetted' by agents is, I think, fair.
As for taking the resident ranter to task - I just can't stand reading twaddle - regardless of who spouts it. At HPC it's become a cult - nearly 9 years they have been predicting a HPC - they twist and distort every little thing into trying to prove they are right. The only thing they are right about is that high house prices based on high levels of debt are bad for an economy - and bad for people. They are right that high house prices transfer wealth from the young to the old. But their ludicrous interpretation of every little statistic to somehow justify their belief is wearing a bit thin.
A new credit crunch brews in Europe as banks are depositing funds with the central bank rather than each other. Maybe it will spread here - but who wants that again? Just cause more grief. What we need to do is recognise that our current borrowing ways have to stop - as quickly as possible. Unfortunately I can't see any timescale less than 20 years that will turn this around - in the meantime we'll have 4 elections with whatever opposition is around promising better times based on more debt.
I have a feeling we are nearing the end game. Time to take the money out of the bank and stick it under the matress perhaps.
Had some 'valuers office' phone today asking about 2 properties where prices have been reduced. They were both unrelated said it was an enquiry from one of their so called surveyors doing research on comparable values.
Sounded like a load of tosh so I asked why they keep phoning me and he said he had only rung twice before. I then asked what the research was about and did not get a sensible answer. Concluded with telling the twit that in both cases the vendors had bad advice from another agent and the prices were now at our recommended level so there was no real reduction as they were too expensive previously.
When I asked where the target property was they were valuing so that I could advise properly he could not tell me said he just wanted info on the ones he asked about. The prices were just under £400,000 and just under £150,000.
Bloke had a Geordie acent so next time I will tell him to pi55 off.
Those vendors have to reduce because rantraave says they have to, hes always so darn right and clever. Perhaps had can run to become the next PM and solve the world issues?
Re 'have had to be reduced in price'. My point is WHY have these properties HAD to be reduced in price? No-one buys it at the original price, so 40% have had to reduce it to achieve what exactly? The article doesn't say that the reductions have lead to more sales.
Vendor A and Vendor B both market their properties at 200K. Vendor B drops theirs to 175K while Vendor A keeps it at the same. Neither of them sell. Why has Vendor B HAD to reduce their price?
Puzzled...: "...they will be tempted to stick it on 25k over priced so they can subsequently reduce and still get the price they want.
Such is the daftness of most people, aided and abetted, it must be said, by many estate agents."
Erm... sorry but I din't see any Agents hatching the 'cunning plan' above - just YOU! ;o)
And to rantnrave you say "So, your comment about 'assuming that 60% have sold without a price reduction' is just pure, undiluted nonsense."
Hmmm - you intrigue me. Advocating HPC - yet seeking fisticuffs with our resident HPCer? What gives?
Hants EA:
Boy - what an advert for the Estate Agency industry you are!
The more I read from you, the LESS I believe you are actually involved in the business, and more likely to be some disgruntled would-be buyer with a chip the size of the Grand Canyon right across both shoulders...
Feel free to prove me wrong!
And, if potential vendors become conscious of the idea that their property will not sell until the price has been reduced - they will be tempted to stick it on 25k over priced so they can subsequently reduce and still get the price they want.
Such is the daftness of most people, aided and abetted, it must be said, by many estate agents.
Rant and Rave: 'It could have read "60% of property on the market has not had to reduce asking price"
That would assume the 60% has sold without having to reduce the asking price.'
Did you not read the article? It said; 'Over 40% of properties CURRENTLY ON THE MARKET have experienced at least one price reduction ...'
So, your comment about 'assuming that 60% have sold without a price reduction' is just pure, undiluted nonsense.
All it says is that 40% of properties on the market now have had their price reduced at least once. Nothing more, nothing less.
..."It could have read "60% of property on the market has not had to reduce asking price"
That would assume the 60% has sold without having to reduce the asking price.
Let me re-write that headline:
"Estate Agents Over-Value Houses in Order to Appeal to Deluded Vendors Shocker."
That's better.
@indy agent.
Not just 'corporate' agents.
ALL agents have to give priority to turnover (income) or they go bust, fact of life.. Unfortunately this is often at the expense of their clients, the majority of whom trust the 'expert' to advise in their best interests, which is not always so. I would advise potential sellers to spend a lot of time doing their own research and then decide, depending very much on their personal situation, whether or not it is the right time for them to sell
Yeah!, spin.
It could have read "60% of property on the market has not had to reduce asking price"
So 60% of vendors believe a return to 2007 prices isn't far away?
(thought I'd get the 60% in before Pee Bee did)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/houseprices/8908432/Housing-market-unlikely-to-recover-says-Bank-of-England-expert.html
more than likley because they have instructed a corporate agent we have 2 in our town, who is targeted to list and then bully the client to reduce in the forthcoming months (this normally ends in tears and a secondhand instruction at the right price. instruct a really good agent and they will advise accuratley and you will sell.