Advertisement

One in three London homes 'could be bought at a discount'

House prices: Across the capital, the average reduction in property asking prices stands at £57,323: Daniel Lynch
House prices: Across the capital, the average reduction in property asking prices stands at £57,323: Daniel Lynch

Nearly a third of properties in London have had their original asking price reduced with an average discount of just under £60,000, according to a property website.

Across the capital, the average reduction in property asking prices stands at £57,323, while 32.3 per cent of properties on the market have been marked down in price.

A study by Zoopla found the borough of Merton has the greatest proportion of reduced price listings, at 39.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, among homes that have had the price reduced, the biggest discounts in London can be found in the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, at 7.7 per cent or £135,702, and Westminster at 7.2 per cent or £124,144.

In the UK as a whole 31.6 per cent of properties on the market have been marked down in price, with an average discount of just under £25,000, the study found.

This is slightly down from the 33.4 per cent recorded in December last year.

House sellers in the North East of England are particularly likely to have slashed their asking prices, with Darlington, South Shields, Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees among the places with the highest proportions of homes for sale with a discount.

Blackwood in South Wales, Woking in Surrey and Great Yarmouth in Norfolk are also among the places where house sellers are most likely to be offering a discount.

At the other end of the spectrum, sellers in Exeter are the least likely to have cut their asking prices, with only 22 per cent of homes on the market their having been reduced in price, compared with around 46 per cent in Darlington, where the biggest proportion of reductions was found.

Sellers in Luton, Coventry, Glasgow and Crewe are also likely to be standing particularly firm on their prices.