Asking prices in London and the Home Counties are significantly out of kilter with final sold prices including a gap of £82,100 in the South West of the capital, analysis of industry data has revealed.
House buying firm Property Solvers looked at 89,582 property sales transactions over the past 12 months and compared their original asking prices with their final sale price.
The company has pinned the huge gaps it found in the market on estate agents which it says have been using unrealistic and ‘over-hyped’ valuations to win instructions.
The key areas of the UK where asking prices are most significantly adrift of final sale price are identified by the research. As well as SW London these include NW London with a £80,299 gap plus West London (£59,192), North London (£35,220), Kingston-upon-Thames (£32,901) and Harrow (£31,166).
Other areas with significant gaps include Slough, Twickenham, Guildford, St Albans, Redhill, Watford, Ilford and Bromley.
The only area not in London and the South of England is Inverness where the asking price to final sale price gap is £18,860.
Wiggle room
“Whilst it’s logical to expect a bit of ‘wiggle room’, its increasingly evident that something is amiss in the marketplace and properties are getting overpriced at the marketing stage,” says Ruban Selvanayagam, co-founder of Property Solvers (left).
“It’s common knowledge in the industry that estate agents frequently provide prospective home sellers with an over-hyped valuation to win an instruction. In many cases, this leads to homes lingering on the market for much longer than they should.”
Read more about asking vs sale prices.
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