A home priced correctly from launch will, on average, find a buyer within 36 days. One that starts too high and later reduces will take 127 days. That isn’t a marginal difference. It’s the gap between selling before the school summer holidays and still being on the market at half-term.
Those figures come from new research published this week by LRG, one of the UK’s largest agency groups. They arrive at a moment when the broader market is generating plenty of positive signals: mortgage rates falling, lenders fighting for business, and the Bank of England holding base rate steady. Yet none of that will rescue an overpriced listing.
LRG surveyed buyers on what stops them making an offer. The results were unequivocal. Overpricing was the primary deterrent for 56% of respondents. Major works needed came second at 42%, followed by damp or structural problems at 35%.
Neil Louth, Group Executive Director of LRG and CEO of The Acorn Group, put it bluntly: “A home that launches at the right figure attracts viewings in its first fortnight, when interest is at its peak. One priced to leave room for negotiation often sits unsold, and the longer it sits, the harder that conversation becomes.”
The psychology is straightforward. Today’s buyers arrive at viewings having already checked comparable sold prices on property portals. They know what the house two doors down fetched. They can see the Land Registry data. An asking price that doesn’t stack up against those figures won’t generate an offer, however beautifully the garden photographs.
LRG’s data also revealed that 35% of sellers said getting the price right from day one mattered more than they had expected. That’s a telling admission, because it implies a significant minority went to market believing a higher figure was worth testing. The evidence suggests it wasn’t.
Some 77% of sellers based their asking price on an agent’s valuation. The remaining 23% presumably drew on their own research, neighbouring sales, or a figure they simply felt their home deserved. Given how long overpriced homes sit, the agent’s valuation appears to be the more reliable starting point, provided the agent resists the temptation to quote high simply to win the instruction.
While asking price dominates the seller’s side of the equation, the mortgage market is doing its part for buyers. This week alone, three major lenders announced rate reductions.
Nationwide reduced rates by up to 0.25% across its first-time buyer, homemover, remortgage and switcher ranges, marking its third round of cuts in June. Its lowest fixed rate now sits at 4.19% for customers looking to move home. Henry Jordan, Nationwide’s group director of mortgages, said the lender was “committed to supporting all borrower types” and that the reductions would help it remain competitive across the board.
The Mortgage Works, Nationwide’s buy-to-let arm, also cut rates for the third time this month. Its two-year fixed BTL rate for purchase and remortgage stands at 3.19% with a 3% fee at 65% loan-to-value. Dan Clinton, head of BTL at TMW, pointed to landlords’ ongoing cost pressures as a key motivation.
Family Building Society launched a new range of base rate tracker products for owner-occupiers and landlords, responding to what head of intermediary sales Darren Deacon described as increasing broker demand for tracker mortgages. “Brokers have told us that enquiries for tracker products are on the increase,” he said, noting that borrowers were seeking flexibility “while they wait for more stable economic and political conditions.”
The combination of falling rates and active buyer demand ought to reassure anyone considering a sale this summer in Norfolk and Suffolk. But LRG’s data carries a clear warning: favourable conditions won’t compensate for an ambitious asking price.
In markets like Norwich and Ipswich, where buyer activity has been robust through the spring, correctly priced homes are moving quickly. Along the coast and in the rural villages, from Burnham Market to Southwold, the premium end of the market has always been more sensitive to pricing precision. A detached period property in North Norfolk that sits £50,000 above comparable sales won’t generate the early interest that drives competitive offers.
The Ivybridge Collection’s property market reports, covering 324 locations across the region, consistently show that the best results come in postcodes where sellers price in line with recent comparable transactions rather than aspirational figures.
Perhaps the most sobering figure in LRG’s analysis draws on Zoopla data: 44% of homes listed in the past three years failed to sell. A third of those unsuccessful sellers admitted they had priced too ambitiously.
That’s a staggering volume of wasted time, marketing spend, and emotional energy. In places like Dereham, Thetford, and Lowestoft, where the market is price-sensitive and buyers have options, the margin for error is particularly thin.
Louth’s point about the opening two weeks deserves emphasis. Property portals prioritise new listings. Buyer alerts fire on day one. That initial surge of interest is, for most homes, the best chance of achieving a strong sale. Miss that window with an overambitious price, and the listing becomes stale. A later reduction signals desperation rather than value.
With lenders cutting rates, buyer confidence holding firm, and the summer market in full swing, the conditions for selling well across Norfolk and Suffolk are as strong as they’ve been in months. The sellers who will benefit most are those who resist the urge to test the water and instead price to sell from the outset. Thirty-six days, or 127. The data is hard to argue with.
