Property seller holding firm on asking prices

The average asking price discount has also fallen, despite the changes to stamp duty land tax in March, according to property search website Zoopla.co.uk.

One third (34%) of properties currently for sale have been reduced in price since first coming onto the market – down from 37% in February. And the average discount on the original asking price has fallen by more than £500 over the same period. Average asking price reductions now stand at £19,012 (7.5%).

The drop in proportion and size of asking price discounts has emerged despite the reintroduction of stamp duty for first time buyers and the introduction of the 7% stamp duty tax on properties sold at over £2m.

Nicholas Leeming, of Zoopla.co.uk said:

“The changes to the stamp duty rules significantly increased the cost of buying for many and there were concerns this would quash demand and force sellers to make bigger cuts in their asking prices. However, it appears demand has remained strong enough for average discounts to actually fall.”

The total amount knocked off the original asking prices of all properties currently for sale across the country stands at £2.9 billion, with £1.3 billion in reductions in London alone.  

Zoopla.co.uk, which lists hundreds of thousands of properties for sale, offers a unique facility that allows house-hunters to sort their property search results by those that have been most reduced in price, highlighting potential property bargains to home buyers and renters.

Newcastle tops the list of places where the biggest discounts are currently being offered by sellers with average reductions of 11.1% (£22,151). Sellers in Liverpool have also made large concessions, knocking 9.2% (£14,031) off their original asking prices on average.

Rotherham has the highest proportion of discounted properties for sale with 43.9% of sellers having cut their asking prices at least once. Other areas with a high proportion of asking price reductions include Swansea (42.5%) and Barnsley (41.6%).

Nicholas Leeming added:

“While sellers in some areas have had to make significant price concessions in order to attract buyers, it’s encouraging to see the overall trend of fewer price reductions and a drop in the size of these reductions.”