UK house sellers accept bigger discount
The gap between asking price and sale price across United Kingdom cities is up from 3.3 per cent last year to 3.9 per cent, according to Zoopla.
SELLERS are knocking more off property asking prices in a bid to get houses sold in what is increasingly becoming a buyer’s market, new data suggests. On average, the gap between asking price andsalepriceacrosscitiesintheUnitedKingdom is up from 3.3 per cent last year to 3.9 per cent, according to Zoopla.
However, the headline figure masks a gap betweenmajorregionalcitieswheremarkets are more robust and London, where home sellers struggle to meet the listing price, the property website says.
It said the difference between asking and achieved prices is increasing across almost all cities — indicating cautious buyers are negotiating harder on price — but discounts are coming from a low base level.
In London, buyers negotiated an average asking price discount of 5.7 per cent in April up from 4.8 per cent a year earlier.
It is worth noting that this only measure properties that are sold, however, and not those that remain on the market without an offer accepted.
Overall, UK city house prices increased 1.7 per cent over the 12 months to April this year as growth across UK cities continues to slow, registering the smallest annual growth since 1996.
The easing in property inflation is no longer contained to southern England, as cities including Manchester, Nottingham and Leicester have registered a slowdown, but the deceleration is still most noticeable in the South.
In London, prices are down 0.5 per cent
annually, while in Cambridge they are down 0.2 per cent.
Cities including Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Bristol and Southampton have all registered price inflation at, or below, 2.5 per cent.
There were also six cities whose average discounts on asking price were reported as abovethecurrentnationalaverage,including Newcastle and Liverpool.
This pattern was not universal, however, astwoScottishcitiesregisteredaveragesale prices as higher than average asking prices.
Properties in Edinburgh sold for 6.3 per cent over their listing price while homes in Glasgow shifted for 5.2 per cent more than asking price.
Glasgow also leads on house price growth at 5.1 per cent, however, this is the lowest growth rate of the best performing city since 2012.
A large factor of this anomaly is that many homes marketed in Scotland are listed as “offers over” the asking price.
Not all Scottish cities are flourishing in the property market though as Aberdeen registered the highest year on year discount at more than eight per cent.
This is consistent with the decrease in demand for housing in the city due to the collapse in the oil price since 2015.
Richard Donnell, research and insight director at Zoopla, said: “This latest index report reveals a continued moderation in the rate of UK city house price growth as the slowdown extends beyond south eastern England.
“Sellers are having to accept slightly