Houses increasingly sold without estate agent

Private deals get higher prices for sellers, as one in 10 UK homes now bought without an intermediary

UP TO a quarter of homes in some areas are now being sold without coming to market, analysis has found.

The share of homes being sold off-market is at its highest since 2015, according to estate agency Hamptons, with a record 23 per cent of sales agreed in the capital so far this year without being advertised.

Overall, one in 10 homes in the UK have sold off-market, with discreet sellers securing higher prices than those who publicly advertised their property.

This marks a seven-year high since the proportion of private sales reached 11pc in 2015, while the capital has hit a new record, up from 17.5pc.

Off-market transactions were once the domain of the wealthy, but unprecedented buyer demand has triggered a rise in private sales among those with more modest budgets. The average home listed privately typically sold for £1.2million in the five years before the pandemic, but this fell to £979,000 in 2021 and has reduced further to £858,000 in the first five months of this year.

Aneisha Beveridge, of Hamptons, said: “The first generation of off-market sellers were those people primarily concerned about the privacy of their home, keen to ensure it wasn’t exposed to anyone who wasn’t serious about buying it.

“But post-pandemic, selling off-market has increasingly been driven by sellers keen to avoid wider marketing amid huge buyer demand and limit the number of people coming through their doors.”

Off-market properties typically spend two to four weeks for sale before either a buyer is found or it is listed to a wider audience, according to Hamptons.

A shortage of homes for sale over the past year has spurred more buyers to test the private market. The supply of properties for sale was 37 per cent below the five-year average last month, according to property website Zoopla, while buyer demand was up 61 per cent. Bigger and more expensive houses, sales of which rose last year, are also more likely to sell without public marketing.

Bidding wars are rife, and desperate buyers have embraced private sales in an effort to get ahead. They have also been prepared to pay a premium for the privilege, according to Hamptons.

The average home sold off-market this year sold for 99.5 per cent of its asking price, higher than the previous record of 98 per cent in 2014, according to the agency. Meanwhile, similar homes on the wider market sold for an average 99 per cent of their asking price.

Ms Beveridge said: “Buyers have been willing to pay a premium to secure their home off-market and prevent sellers marketing the property openly to other interested parties where competition is rife. But it is likely we are reaching peak off-market sales levels.

“With the number of homes on the market forecast to rise later in the year, buyers are likely to be more cautious about paying a premium in the face of an increasing amount of choice.”

This could coincide with a slowdown in the wider property market, which has started to cool as a result of rising interest rates and inflation.