Yahoo Finance This county is the house price discount capital of Britain
Surrey Heath has been named the house price discount capital of Britain, with three out of five sales done at a cut the price to their initial listing.
The Home Counties borough, which covers towns such as Camberley, Frimley and Bagshot, had almost double the national average of discounted property sales last month.
59pc of homes sold in the Surrey commuter belt district in February had a price change before a sale was agreed, according to TwentyCi, a data company.
The national average last month stood at 32pc.
Julian de la Poer Beresford, of Hamptons estate agents in Sunningdale, said discounts in Surrey Heath average between 5pc and 8pc.
Discounted property sales are on the rise nationally as high mortgage rates and a cost-of-living squeeze hit buyer demand and put downward pressure on prices.
Sellers in London and the South East are having to make the biggest adjustments. Across the South East, more than 5,000 properties were sold at a discount in February, accounting for 37pc of all sales in the region.
A year earlier only 26pc of sales in the South East faced a discount.
The South East is particularly exposed to the current downturn because high house prices in relation to earnings mean buyers are more dependent on mortgage borrowing.
The area is also suffering from a drop in demand after the end of the so-called “race for space”, where people moved out of cities during the pandemic.
Daniel Burstow, regional director of the Home Counties at Strutt & Parker estate agents, said: “Compared to the pandemic when we had huge numbers of buyers, we have probably seen at least a 50pc reduction in inquiries on properties.”
He added: “18 months ago, the South East property market was driven by a huge surge in buyers from London. Now that London is open again, a lot of people are thinking ‘do we actually need to move out?’”
Asking prices have come down by between 5pc and 10pc year-on-year, Mr Burstow said.
Agreed sales across the South East were down by a quarter year-on-year, according to TwentyCi. Nationally, sales fell by 22pc.
Richard Winter, a Surrey buying agent, said: “We have just bought a property that was listed last year for £1.75m. Back then, before Liz Truss, it had five or six people offering on it and the sale was agreed for just shy of £2m. That fell through at Christmas. We’ve just bought it for £1.6m.”
