A third of homes could be bought for a discount, property site finds

Updated

Nearly a third of homes on the market have had their original asking price reduced, with the average discount standing at just under £25,000, according to a property website.

Across Britain, the average reduction in property asking prices stands at £24,989, Zoopla found. Currently, 31.6% of properties on the market have been marked down in price, slightly down from 33.4% 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% of homes on the market their having been reduced in price, compared with around 46% 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.

In London, 32.3% of properties for sale have had their asking price reduced, with an average discount of £57,323.

Within London, the borough of Merton has the greatest proportion of reduced price listings, at 39.1%. Among homes that have had the price reduced, the biggest discounts in London can typically be found in the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, at 7.7% or £135,702 and Westminster at 7.2% or £124,144.

Here are the top 10 areas with the highest proportions of asking price reductions, according to Zoopla, with the percentage of homes on the market that have had their original asking price reduced, followed by the average reduction in percentage and cash terms:

1. Darlington, 45.65%, 6.9%, £10,599

2. South Shields, 43.9%, 7.71%, £9,323

3. Middlesbrough, 42.52%, 7.38%, £9,800

4. Keighley, 40.35%, 6.33%, £11,447

5. Eastbourne, 40.33%, 5.75%, £15,848

6. Stockton-on-Tees, 39.47%, 8.04%, £11,532

7. Barnsley, 39.45%, 6.62%, £10,885

8. Blackwood, 39.07%, 6.76%, £12,704

9. Woking, 38.99%, 5.79%, £37,750

10. Great Yarmouth, 38.77%, 6.3%, £13,435

Here are the top 10 areas with the lowest proportions of asking price reductions, according to Zoopla, with the percentage of homes on the market which have had their original asking price reduced, followed by the average reduction in percentage and cash terms:

1. Exeter, 21.83%, 5.11%, £20,352

2. Bedford, 22.82%, 5.3%, £17,527

3. Luton, 22.94%, 4.73%, £13,114

4. Poole, 22.99%, 6.18%, £57,455

5. Coventry, 23.78%, 5.32%, £15,077

6. Cambridge, 23.88%, 5.85%, £31,015

7. Glasgow, 23.9%, 6.39%, £8,842

8. Paignton, 23.95%, 5.58%, £10,701

9. Huntingdon, 24%, 5.01%, £18,174

10. Crewe, 24.04%, 6.25%, £16,272

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