Almost one million property price reductions have been recorded throughout 2024 – the largest number on record, data from analytics company TwentyEA has revealed.
This number is 8.1% higher than 2023 and 17.6% higher than 2019 and at a broader level means 38% of all concluded listings in 2024 had at least one price reduction.
Compared with last year, the price reduction rate in 2024 has increased most in the lower price bands below £350k and rose everywhere in the UK in 2024 except for Northern Ireland. At the other end of the spectrum, Wales’ price reduction rate had the largest growth, moving from 36% in 2023 to 40% in 2024.
TwentyEA examined the price reductions regionally and by price band and found there were two specific trends which suggested the reductions were not caused by agents overvaluing but instead were more likely driven by sellers with unrealistic price ambitions.
Katy Billany, executive director of TwentyEA, said: “Firstly, price reductions are more prevalent within the lower price brackets and secondly there is an increase of price reductions concentrated within specific regions such as Wales. If agents were overvaluing, we would expect to see a more stark growth in price reductions across all price brackets and a more even spread of reductions occurring across the regions but that’s not the case, so we suggest sellers are demanding unrealistic asking prices.
“Given the prevalence of price reductions happening right now, we’re expecting to see this continue for the foreseeable future.”