Market has lowest price reductions for five years says portal

Buyers are finding haggling over house prices increasingly difficult with the typical property currently reduced by just 6.05 per cent from its original asking rice – the lowest level in five years according to property website Zoopla.

Even so, this still means that some 31 per cent of properties currently on sale have had their price reduced at least once since originally being listed. That equates to over £2 billion of reductions in total.

The top 10 areas with the highest percentage of properties with reduced asking prices are all in the north of England, with more than two-fifths of all properties listed in Rotherham (43.6 per cent), Preston (43.2 per cent) and Barnsley (42.3 per cent) having been marked down by sellers.

In terms of the areas where the largest reductions are currently on offer, Blackpool (9.8 per cent), Manchester (8.3 per cent) and Bradford (7.9 per cent) are perhaps predictable - but London is also in the ‘top 10’ with an average 7.4 per cent reduction. Typical discounts in the capital exceed £75,000.

The neighbouring boroughs of Merton (28.7 per cent), Richmond-upon-Thames and Croydon (both 27.3 per cent) have the highest proportion of reduced properties for sale, but those looking for the largest reductions will find them in Havering – a borough soon to benefit from Crossrail – where the typical property price discount is 10.45 per cent.

At the top end of the national market, more than a fifth of properties valued over £1m have been reduced since originally coming on to the market, at an average discount of more than £185,000.