Source Propertymark
For property aficionados the answer is obvious but if you are not accustomed to the way house prices work, here’s a brief explanation.
When there are more buyers than homes on the housing market, as was the case from early 2021 until very recently, then sellers rule the roost. They can sit firm and, sometimes, just wait for the offers to roll in.
This is why for much of this year, homes routinely sold for over the advertised asking prices with multiple offers as buyers competed to secure the property.
Now that has changed. Propertymark reports that 72 per cent of sales were secured below the asking price in November.
That’s because agents have reported an average of 33 properties on sale by each branch. That’s a whopping 74 per cent increase in homes to choose from since the start of 2022.
And just as that was happening, the number of new buyers registering with Propertymark member branches dropped to 52 in the past month. As recently as August, the figure was 86 per branch on average.
So we’re now in a housing market where there are as many or more homes on sale than there are potential homebuyers. That’s when the pendulum swings to become a buyers’ market, with purchasers having a wider choice of homes to view. And more time to do so. And part of parcel of that is the reality that they tend to put in offers below the asking price and negotiate on their purchase.
See you soon, Daniel
