Analysis of over 1 million property transactions has found that 16% were impacted by potential gazumping.
Phil Spencer’s Move iQ and proptech firm Gazeal analysed 1.08 million property sales data published by HM Land Registry and compared them with the price the houses were originally marketed in the year to January. The research found that over 172,000 home sales paid more than the original asking price; an indication that the buyer may have been gazumped after a price had been agreed.
The research sites 33 regions where property sales consistently exceeded their asking price, despite a slowing housing market.
Even in areas like Maidstone, in Kent, where property prices fell by 1%, around a third (32%) of property sales exceeded the marketed asking price. This trend continued in many areas experiencing property price reductions. Prices fell by 2.6% in the year to January in Blackpool, yet 6% of sales could have been affected by gazumping tactics. Although the homes in Luton reduced by 2%, 12% of sales exceeded the original asking price.
Top of the potential gazumping league were Sheffield and Birmingham where property sales exceeded the marketed asking price by 35% and 26% respectively.
Phil Spencer, TV presenter and co-founder of Move iQ, said:
“For anyone who thought gazumping vanished with the runaway price rises of a few years ago, our findings will come as a reality check.
“Gazumping is alive and well, and still causing heartache for tens of thousands of buyers across England and Wales.
“Britain’s fragmented property market is throwing up huge regional extremes.
“In hotspots where prices are still rising fast, sellers can be tempted to go back on their word to a buyer if they get a better offer elsewhere.
“Meanwhile, in slow markets, the lack of homes for sale can lead sellers to leave would-be buyers in the lurch if they get a last minute offer from someone else.
“But whatever the market conditions, the real culprit is the legal blind spot in the way homes are bought and sold in England and Wales. A legal system that lets sellers leave buyers high and dry weeks, or even months, after accepting their offer is clearly not fit for purpose.”
Whilst it may be more common to see evidence of gazundering in a struggling market, the research suggests that many house hunters in England and Wales are being forced to pay above the marketed price and may have suffered the heartache of losing out on their dream property altogether as a fresh buyer outbids them after an initial price was agreed..
Have you noticed an increase in the number of housing sales falling through because of gazumping?
