Home sellers cut asking prices on 3,000 properties a day, says Rightmove
British home sellers reduced asking prices on more than 3,000 properties a day in September, marking the highest monthly total in 15 years as elevated mortgage rates and a glut of listings leave buyers holding the upper hand. Figures from property website Rightmove, shared exclusively with the BBC, showed that the typical price reduction ran nearly seven percent, cutting roughly £21,000 off a typically valued home.
Home Sales Fall as Listings Rise in September
September often brings the heaviest price adjustments of the year as owners try to complete deals before the calendar turns, but this year’s figures reflect a deeper mismatch between hope and demand. Rival portal Zoopla reported that the number of homes for sale rose five percent in September compared to a year earlier, while sales agreed fell nine percent over the same stretch. Out of all newly listed properties, 25% had already been advertised within the preceding year, and of those, 60% made a comeback with a reduced asking price.
Regional variations remain sharp across Britain. In Scotland, 74 percent of homes listed in April, May, and June sold within three months, supported by an independent Home Report valuation system that provides buyers with a priced baseline upfront. By contrast, the figure dropped to 30 percent in London. Higher prices, stamp duty pressures, and leasehold complexities in southern England left more listings stranded. Individuals who reached out to the BBC’s Your Voice highlighted the challenges sparked by an oversupplied housing market, alongside distinct complications faced by vendors of English leasehold properties. One, who was selling his late father’s home in south Wales, said: The market is dead. Lots for sale; no-one buying. No-one thinks it’s going to get easier.
The Cost of Mispricing and Extended Timelines
Properties requiring price cuts spent significantly longer on the market. Homes that took a reduction typically needed 119 days to find a buyer, whereas properties listed at the correct price found a buyer in 39 days, according to Rightmove. Properties needing a reduction were half as likely to secure a buyer inside the normal three-month window. In the past month, 34 percent of listed homes carried a price reduction, approaching the recent peak of 36 percent recorded in September 2023.
Tarah Lourens, chief operating officer at Rightmove, noted that emotional factors continue to influence initial valuations as sellers assign value to the time and money they invested in their properties. Buyers, however, focus strictly on affordability within their budgets. Agents said that valuations now drew on huge amounts of data. Colleen Babcock of Rightmove warned that a late price reduction can spook shoppers who begin questioning why a property failed to sell earlier, noting that Once a home has been on the market for a while and then has a price reduction, some buyers start asking questions, even when there is nothing wrong with the property.
Katie Griffin from surveyors Sawdye and Harris in Devon explained that correcting a price after months online can ultimately force a seller to accept less than even a revised asking price. Conversely, Andrew Boast, chief executive of SAM Conveyancing, observed that sellers who negotiated aggressively when purchasing their homes and experienced capital growth during their tenure may still come out ahead despite accepting a reduction.
