Sellers cutting asking prices

Increasingly property owners are having to cut their prices to grab a buyer.

Zoopla are reporting that 3.8 billion have been knocked off the value of the initial advertised prices, with nearly a third of the properties advertised on the portal now discounted from when they first touched onto the market.

The property portal have also seen an increase in the value of these price reductions since the start of the year. The average reduction now sits at 6.7 percent taken from the initial asking price ( or £24,429 in hard cash ), a increase from the 6.3 percent (£20,781) that the site was seeing back in February 2014.

It seems increasingly owners are having to take a reality check, particularly those in the north.

Preston has the highest frequency of price reductions, along with Barnsley, Wakefield and Rotherham.

Zoopla’s Lawrence Hall remains buoyant (but he would) saying  

"The property market typically slows in December as buyers postpone their plans until the New Year and become pre-occupied with the festive season, but these figures suggest that sellers may be being forced to rest their expectations and become more realistic in order to secure a buyer. People are well attuned to a bargain at this time of year, so homebuyers may want to capitalise on the latest raft of reductions."

Stressing the positives, Hall added:

 "The recent Stamp Duty reforms have injected a real feel-good factor into the property market that is likely to last into January when there will be a renewed surge in buyers looking for property. There would usually be an air of uncertainty in the lead up to an election, but the positivity created by the tax overhaul should ensure this isn’t as keenly felt as usual."

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