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Seaside town Brighton has been declared the gazumping capital of the UK after research by online estate agent eMoov.co.uk.

It found that on average across the UK a fifth of the nation (22%) have experienced the turmoil of being gazumped.

Popular property hotspot Brighton topped the pole with 34.9% of people having been previously gazumped when buying a property closely followed by 31.9% in London.

The tactic of sealed bidding, particularly rife in the capital, provides the ideal environment for potential gazumpers. Having an offer rejected, only to return at a later date to outbid the original buyer.

Outside of the South East the average drops from 22% to 18%. Birmingham figures show 27% of property buyers in the area have been gazumped with Sheffield at 22%, Bristol at 21%, Leeds and Nottingham at 20%.

Although gazumping is not a new concept it has become a more regular occurrence across the country. The research also found that the higher the price of the property, the more likely you are to be gazumped. Of those that had been previously gazumped 27% were over properties of £500,000 or above. This dropped to 25% for properties valued between £200,000 and £500,000 and a further 6% for properties under £200,000.

Russell Quirk, CEO of online estate agent eMoov.co.uk, said: It is one of those things in the current structure of property purchasing unfortunately. Buyers that have displayed honest interest in a property only to be let down by owners with pound signs in their eyes, often encouraged by traditional estate agent looking to increase his fee percentage.

Liverpool was the least affected area of England for gazumping at just 13%, however this doesn't necessarily put an end to unethical behaviour during the buying process.

If these markets cool off too much, we could see gazundering coming back in. This is a tactic in areas with little demand where the buyer calls up just before the exchange of contracts and demands to pay less, said Quirk.

Comments

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    And in an article just a couple of weeks ago he was stating how the addition of 10,000 in commission made no difference to estate agents motivation. This t*at has no credibility whatsoever.

    • 25 November 2014 15:40 PM
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    This is news to me - id of put money that London would have been the worst at Gazumping!

    With the indication that Gazumping is worse with High Value properties I am not sure how the 1,500 [url="http://bespokefinance.eu/purchaseprotection"]gazumping insurance[/url] will cover all the "losses" in a sellers market in Brighton/London.

    • 25 November 2014 15:06 PM
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    Unbelievable. This guy will use any opportunity he can to slate estate agents. The truth is, most agents don't encourage gazumping. Example:

    Mrs B offers 250,000 on a 275,000 house. Mrs P accepts.

    2 months later, with exchange dates in sight, Mrs R enters the frame and offers 260,000 (which the estate agent has to put to the owner by law, although i'm sure Russel knows this really).

    If Mrs P were to accept this new offer, she risks not only destroying a well progressed sale, but the agent would only benefit an extra 150 (based on a 1.5% fee), and therefore as I said earlier would not necessarily encourage the vendor to accept.

    Lets not also forget, despite everything i've just said, it is an agents job to get the vendor the best price for their home.

    • 25 November 2014 09:35 AM
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