The latest research by property purchasing specialist, House Buyer Bureau, has found that while cases of gazundering have fallen across the property market since the start of the year, one in five sellers are still being lowballed by their buyer having previously accepted a higher offer.
The survey of over 1,000 UK home sellers to have sold in the last six months, commissioned by House Buyer Bureau, found that one in five sellers have been gazundered when selling their home.
Gazundering is when a buyer submits a lower offer for the property they wish to purchase before the sale completes, having already had a higher offer previously accepted.
The good news is that while one in five may have been gazundered in cooler market conditions, this number has, at least, fallen. The same survey from House Buyer Bureau found that at the start of the year (February 2023), as many as 31% of home sellers had been gazundered.
Of those to have fallen foul of a lower offer in the last six months, 47% stated they were gazundered within two weeks before their completion date
73% of those who have recently been gazundered also stated they had no other choice but to accept the lower offer submitted by their buyers.
The main reason given for doing so was that they didn’t want to jeopardise their onward purchase (32%), while many sellers also didn’t want to waste time finding another buyer (24%) – a task that is no longer as simple as it was during the heights of the pandemic market boom.
The main reason given by gazundering buyers for submitting a lower offer was the fact that issues were found with the property during the survey stage of the transaction (36%), although as many as 22% also admitted to simply chancing their arm.
Of those sellers who didn’t accept the lower offer submitted, 34% stated that the sale then went on to collapse, up from 21% in February of this year.
Managing Director of House Buyer Bureau, Chris Hodgkinson, said, “It would appear that while the market is still underperforming, an air of growing stability has at least led to a reduced level of gazundering on the part of buyers.
That said, one in five sellers are still being subject to a lower offer, many within two weeks of their intended completion data.
With the ability to find a buyer in a proceedable position proving difficult at present, many sellers are left with little choice but to take the hit on asking price if they want to move and, for those who don’t, there’s a high chance their sale will collapse.”
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