Yahoo Finance Sellers forced to cut asking prices by £25k as housing market cools
The subdued state of the UK housing market is resulting in homeowners accepting offers well below asking price, with 32pc of properties currently on the market having been marked down.
The latest figures from property portal Zoopla show that the average reduction in property asking prices is £24,947, or 8.42pc, with homes in the Isle of Man recording the largest discounts, at £41,212 on average.
Sellers in Bradford and Doncaster are also having to resort to slashing their asking prices, by an average of £11,768 and £12,894, respectively.
Twickenham in south west London has the largest proportion of properties selling for a discount (41.57pc), while the resilience of property markets in Glasgow, Manchester and Coventry mean they have the smallest proportion of properties on the market at a discount, at 17.27pc, 22.82pc, and 25.93pc, respectively.
In London, 34.61pc of London property listings have been reduced in price – down from 39.45pc in December, Zoopla found.
A recent report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said that most London surveyors had seen a rise in the number of sellers withdrawing properties from the market, indicating that buyers have not matched their expected price for the homes.
Many economists predict that annual house price growth across the UK will be between 1pc and 2pc over the next few years, with the capital dragging down growth in other parts of the country, such as the east and west Midlands.
Zoopla's research found that the average property on the market in London has been reduced by an average of 6.66pc (£53,623). Kensington and Chelsea is London’s most discounted borough with an average reduction of 7.86pc, or £113,491.
Sellers in other London boroughs, including Westminster, Camden and Ealing, have also had to trim their asking prices, by between £60,000 and £118,000, in order to secure a sale.
Zoopla analysed the top 50 locations with the highest number of for-sale properties and 33 London boroughs to reveal the proportion of listings in each area that have had their asking prices reduced.
