If you are currently selling a property, you may fear that reducing the price may signal that your house is less desirable and deter potential buyers. But in the current market, this is not necessarily the case. Our Founder and Managing Partner, Deborah Richards, discusses the ways a price reduction in the local Tunbridge Wells area can, for some sellers, help to boost property sales.

Price-sensitive buyer’s market in 2023

A recent Property & Homemover Report by Twenty EA showed that currently an average 19,311 properties a week are being reduced in price. This figure was below 10,000 a week in 2021 and 2022, demonstrating that the booming seller’s market of the pandemic years has been replaced with a more price-sensitive, buyer’s market during this unsettled economic period. This flip between buyer and seller price expectations has been a driving reason behind falling property values:  Buyers are taking longer to consider the market and their purchase decisions and sellers are beginning to understand that they will not achieve the aggressive prices of last year, appreciating that the heat of the market has cooled. That said,  it is worth highlighting that we actually now sit in a stronger and busier market than pre-pandemic.

Price amendments – the myth

Many sellers are reluctant to undertake a price reduction at first, as they believe it will alert buyers to a potential problem with their property. This could not be further from the truth. A price amendment aligns the property’s value with what a buyer is prepared to pay. With more properties remaining on the market for longer, a price reduction can reinvigorate interest in your property when the market slows.

Three ways a price amendment can improve your property’s market appeal

There are several ways that a price amendment can boost your property’s marketing performance. The top three include:

  1. It refreshes your sale. If you reduce by 2% or more, Rightmove will alert all buyers registered with them, looking for a property within this new price bracket, of the reduction. They also cleverly advise that there is a new property for sale and reset the date on the listing, meaning your property will appear higher in search results.
  2. You engage a new audience. By changing the listed price of a property, you fall within a new maximum price range. This means that your property will be seen by a new host of buyers, who may have not seen it previously.
  3. More value for less. There is incredible psychology behind a property’s price and a meaningful reduction can make a property suddenly feel like really good value.

Balancing the scales

It is totally understandable that a price reduction can be painful. A seller has anchored on a price that they think is fair, made plans based on achieving that figure and now feel that thousands of pounds are being ‘lost’. However, in the current property market, the price of their next purchase is likely to also be less, making the returns still relative to what they had originally expected.

Ultimately, that leaves just one question that a seller needs to ask themselves: “Are we moving or are we staying?”

If you are looking to sell or rent a property in or around Tunbridge Wells, then give our award-winning team a call. We’d love to help.