London sellers forced to knock £1,000s off their house prices so they can move

When Sindhu Pillai’s daughter sailed via the eleven-plus and received a spot at a coveted grammar faculty in Kingston upon Thames, the household’s pleasure was tinged with just a bit little bit of panic.

For the previous 14 years they’ve lived fortunately in Hanwell, some eight miles away, and the college run would take an hour every manner.

“We didn’t actually need to depart — Hanwell is gorgeous — however we didn’t need that so we have now determined it was greatest to maneuver,” stated Pillai, who’s in her late forties and works as an IT supervisor.

Within the final week of June, Pillai’s three-bedroom semi went up on the market with Arthur Samuel Property Brokers with a price ticket of £745,000, the best of three property agent quotes she and her husband obtained.

The couple arrived at this value resolution after what homeowners of different comparable properties within the space had been asking, and take into account it good worth given Hanwell’s nice transport hyperlinks and villagey vibe.

However the household can be painfully conscious that they’re trying to promote at an exceptionally troublesome time for London’s property market. Costs are static at greatest, transaction numbers are low, and the few consumers there are on the market are firmly within the driving seat.

Within the first week it was available on the market the home was seen greater than 1,000 occasions on Zoopla, and 400 occasions on Rightmove. “However sadly there have been no inquiries, nothing that has translated to viewings.”

Pillai’s technique is to await August’s Financial institution of England resolution on rates of interest. If there’s a reduce she believes that demand will improve and she’s going to maintain her nerve. If it doesn’t she is steeling herself to rethink the asking value. “We are able to attempt to make it extra engaging,” she stated.

Throughout London owners like Pillai are dealing with comparable selections. Discounting is a basic symptom of a purchaser’s market, forcing distributors who actually need to maneuver to chop their costs.

And, in components of London, the size of the reductions on provide is breathtaking. In January it emerged that The Holme, a sprawling Regent’s Park mansion, offered for £138.9 million, in opposition to an unique asking value of £250 million, after two years available on the market.

And The Holme seems to be the rule moderately than the exception. The venerable Coutts financial institution says that 82 per cent of properties in prime central London offered for lower than their unique asking value within the first quarter of 2025.

Central London property analyst LonRes calculates that the common low cost on asking costs in central London is 9.3 per cent. And on the whole phrases, the dearer the neighbourhood, the larger the cuts: in Mayfair and St James’s homeowners are having to shave a mean 15 per cent from their asking costs, whereas in Knightsbridge and Belgravia the common low cost is 12.5 per cent.

That is super information for high-rolling consumers on the lookout for a cut price. However even a double-digit value reduce received’t put a beautiful residence on Mount Avenue in attain for many of us. In the true world of Zone 2 and past there’s additionally widespread discounting, though what you might truly save is a nuanced query relying on location and value bracket.

In Blackheath and Greenwich, Steve Brown, common supervisor of Winkworth, stated there have been loads of potential consumers window buying on the property portals — however few prepared to make the leap proper now. “They’re ready for rates of interest to come back down,” he stated.

Brown is discovering that dearer properties are the toughest promote — in Might, of 54 properties priced at £1.5 million or above solely two had been offered. However within the £350,000 to £400,000 market, 42 per cent of properties discovered a purchaser.

Reductions vary too, from round 20 per cent off properties priced at £800,000 to £1 million, to seven or eight per cent off flats priced at £500,000 or much less. The exception is low-cost homes that — if priced under £500,000 — have a tendency to realize their asking value.

“Ex-local authority housing inventory is performing exceptionally nicely,” he stated. “We had a two-bedroom semi available on the market in SE3 not too long ago with an asking value of £425,000. We had 29 viewings within the first weekend, and 11 provides. It’s now underneath provide at £455,000.”

Brown agrees with Pillai that August’s rate of interest resolution might be a pivotal, with pent-up demand able to be unleashed. “However there’s additionally Trump and commerce points, inflation is just not coming down, there are wars …” he stated. “So who is aware of. I’d hope that come September we can have a standard market.”

Chaotic is the phrase Becky Munday, managing director of Mundays Property Brokers, which sells throughout south and south-east London, makes use of to explain the present market. “You’ve got a number of landlords promoting up, neighbours undercutting one another, folks discovering their dream house and slashing costs,” she stated. “It could possibly get very emotional.”

Pleasingly, Munday additionally finds that each consumers and sellers are additionally changing into extra versatile to get their properties offered. She not too long ago encountered a scenario the place a purchaser on the backside finish of a sequence found their potential house had a humid drawback that wanted 1000’s of kilos to repair. They needed to drop their provide to pay for the work, and the remainder of the chain has every agreed to take a modest low cost that shall be handed right down to them, protecting 4 separate gross sales alive.

“Individuals are attempting to create options,” stated Munday. The scale of the low cost varies relying on the worth and sort of property, however Munday says distributors are at present prepared to entertain cuts of as much as 10 per cent. In Herne Hill, Sarah Dirilen, head of gross sales at John D Wooden property brokers, feels her distributors’ ache. She not too long ago offered her three-bedroom South Norwood semi to upsize to Beckenham.

“I purchased it in 2018, did the renovation, and spent an honest sum of money,” she stated. “After I got here to resell it I made a loss. Individuals have gotten used to the concept they may generate profits once they promote, however that’s not at all times the case. I wanted to make that transfer, so the true query was not what am I promoting for, however can I make my subsequent transfer work?”

Not all of Dirilen’s distributors are fairly as pragmatic as she is, nonetheless and don’t take kindly to the concept of slicing their asking costs. “It’s about managing expectations of people that stay in a metropolis that has seen huge value progress up to now,” she stated. “However that has not been the case over the previous three or 4 years. I inform them that if their house is just not promoting on the present value — and we have now performed every little thing doable to market the property — then it was by no means value that within the first place.”

In fact the flip aspect of discounting is that it doesn’t actually matter should you drop the worth of your property, as long as you obtain an equal low cost on the different finish. “As a lot because it seems like you’re taking successful on the paper worth it could transpire that the one you’re shopping for has come down extra,” stated Brown.

Sadly, since totally different postcodes have totally different market situations, this can’t be assured. “Kingston upon Thames is rather more costly than Hanwell — and due to the grammar faculty it’s proof against the market,” stated Pillai.

After spending eight years in her one-bedroom flat in Holloway, by final summer season Rebecca Barnes was prepared for a extra peaceable house within the suburbs.

When she put the freehold flat with its massive roof terrace available on the market in August 2024, Barnes, a author and editor, selected an asking value of £410,000. “I had three valuations and this wasn’t the best,” she stated. “I wished to be life like and promote rapidly.”

After a handful of viewings and no provides Barnes determined to swap brokers and drop her asking value to £400,000. This generated extra viewings, however no essential provide.

After a month Barnes’s brokers suggested her to knock one other £50,000 off the asking value, assuring her that the transfer would spark a bidding conflict. “I reluctantly agreed,” stated Barnes. “I actually wished to promote and in the long run I made a decision it wasn’t concerning the cash however my wellbeing so I used to be prepared to take the hit.”

The technique labored — form of. Barnes discovered herself with two potential purchasers. In January 2025 she accepted a £347,699 provide. The deal went via on March 31, a day earlier than Stamp Responsibility elevated, which saved her some cash on her onward buy of a property in south-west London.

“In hindsight I’m nonetheless irritated with the agent for forcing my hand as they knew it might get them a sale,” she stated. “Nonetheless, I wished and wanted to maneuver by that time, so I used to be OK with promoting for the worth I did. I’ve completely no regrets, as I’m very pleased the place I’m.

“I’ve made good cash on earlier properties and you’ll’t win all of them.”