Estate agents are warning UK property sellers that overpricing their homes could leave them waiting significantly longer to complete a sale.
New research from Savills reveals that sellers who overprice and are forced into reductions take four times as long to sell compared to those who list at an accurate price from the outset.
According to Savills, 33 per cent of sales required the asking price to be reduced at least once before a buyer could be secured.
A further 11 per cent of sales required the asking price to be lowered two or more times before the property successfully left the market.
Savills found that a seller pricing their property accurately at the point of listing can expect to complete a sale within just 28 days.
A single price reduction pushes that timeline out to 100 days, while two cuts can extend the process to almost five and a half months before an offer is reached.
Lucian Cook, residential research director at Savills, said the data “tells us that the more you misprice the property, the more protracted the sale process will be.”
Cook added: “What this reveals is how important it is to get your price right. We know that everybody’s natural inclination is to go to the top end of their range of values, because this is your biggest asset.”
Beyond the time cost, Savills also found that sellers forced to reduce their asking price typically trim an average of 4.4 per cent with each cut made.
Over 20 per cent of sellers needed to cut their initial asking price at least once in order to successfully attract a buyer and progress to a sale.
Those at the most extreme end of mispricing, requiring four separate reductions, saw their final sale price fall by a total of 15.4 per cent below where they originally listed.
The research comes alongside data from the Office for National Statistics showing that house prices in London fell by 3.7 per cent in the year to May, bringing the average to £545,000.
London’s wealthiest neighbourhoods continued to bear the brunt of the wider market slowdown, with Westminster recording a steep fall of 22.8 per cent and Kensington and Chelsea dropping by 10.7 per cent.
The combination of a softening market and the penalties of overpricing makes accurate valuation more critical than ever for sellers hoping to move quickly and protect the value of their assets.