Surprise Tactic Competitive Bidding In London

Over the last 12 months in PCL, sellers have become increasingly open to accepting offers but have kept asking prices high to maintain a margin for discount, expecting buyers to come to the table and negotiate heavily, reflects top property analyst Jo Eccles.

Buyers, on the other hand, have been unwilling to engage with sellers whose asking prices are clearly misaligned with values. Or they have had insufficient knowledge of pricing to confidently negotiate big discounts without causing offence and damaging their credibility with the selling agents. (There’s a fine line between spotting value and knowing where a discount is potentially possible, versus earning a reputation as a buyer going across the market and ‘trying their luck’, which makes selling agents and sellers unlikely to back them as a committed and credible buyer.)

Over recent months however, sellers have finally realised that they need to heavily reduce their asking prices, or price boldly at the outset in order to get traction – and this has paid off. In the past three weeks there have been multiple cases of competitive bidding on properties from £3.5m – £21m and, in the majority of cases, the properties have been on the market for six months to two years and are now ‘priced to sell’.

Sellers are keen to transact and maximise the price they achieve, but their priority is a successful sale and most are unwilling to take the risk of accepting a higher offer from a less credible buyer.