Agents have been urged to price realistically as Rightmove revealed data showing the impact of asking price reductions.
Tim Bannister, director of property science for the portal, unveiled research at the Propertymark One conference in Wembley Arena yesterday that he said underlined the importance of sellers and agents being realistic.
The analysis looked at properties coming on to the site between January 2017 and November 2022.
It found that properties are 10% less likely to go under offer if there is a price reduction, while time on the market is more than double where there is a change.
The likelihood of a fall-through is also almost double if there has been a reduction.
The research also showed that properties are 1.5 to two times more likely to be lost to a competitor if there is a reduction.
The analysis also showed that the reduction rate grows if a property doesn’t get an email enquirty in the first week, with 56% of listings usually getting at least one.
Bannister added that all these factors relate to the pricing strategy from day one.
He said the market is facing challenges from higher mortgage rates and inflation but said Rightmove is sticking to its forecast of a 2% decline in house prices this year.