Zoopla.co.uk: Property Asking Prices Discounted to Highest Level in Over a Year

LONDON, August 19, 2011 -

-According to Zoopla.co.uk, 2 in 5 properties on the market today have had their price lowered at least once; the average price reduction by sellers is over £18,500-

More current sellers have reduced the asking price of their home than at any time in the last year, according to property website Zoopla.co.uk. Two in five (38.6%) of all properties currently for sale in Britain have had their asking prices reduced at least once since coming onto the market, up from 37% three months ago, and well ahead of the 32% one year ago.

Even properties over £1 million, where the market has been most resilient, have seen more asking price reductions. Of all £1 million+ properties on the market, 27% have had their price reduced at least once, up from 25% three months ago and significantly higher than the 22% one year ago.

Zoopla.co.uk, which offers a unique feature allowing users to hunt for bargains by sorting properties for sale on its website by those that have been most-reduced in price, reveals that sellers have been forced to reduce prices by £18,597 (7.13%) on average in an effort to attract buyers. The average price reduction is now £2,200 more than one year ago when the average discount from the original asking price was 6.1%.

And the north-south divide continues to widen in the property market. Sellers in the north are being forced to reduce asking prices by much more than their counterparts in the south. Northern towns and cities dominate the list of places with the highest average price reductions.

Sellers in Bolton are suffering the most, having been forced to reduce the original asking price by 8.6% on average. Glasgow (8.2%) and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (8.2%) complete the top three, while other major northern cities like Liverpool are also in the top ten. Conversely, house prices in the south-east have remained more immune to reductions where properties in Chelmsford (5.5%) have the lowest average discount and the list also includes other prominent south-east areas like London (6.3%) and Croydon (5.6%).

London has the lowest proportion of price-reduced homes in the UK (32.4%), serving to emphasise its detachment from the rest of the market. Meanwhile, in Stockport, nearly half (47.8%) of all properties for sale have been reduced in price since coming onto the market, closely followed by Huddersfield (46.3%) and Chesterfield (45.8%).

Nicholas Leeming, Business Development Director of Zoopla.co.uk, said, “Vendors continue to have to lower prices due to weak buyer demand. Sluggish economic growth has hit buyer confidence and tight-fisted lenders are currently making it impossible for swathes of would-be buyers to benefit from the price reductions. For those who can get mortgages, now is as good a time as there has been in over a year to search for a new property.”

A list of price reductions in 50 key British cities/towns can be found here: www.zoopla.co.uk/pricereduction

About Zoopla.co.uk

Zoopla.co.uk (www.zoopla.co.uk) is the UK’s most comprehensive property website, focused on empowering consumers with the resources they need to make better-informed property decisions. We help our users make sense of the residential property market by combining property listings with market value data, local information and community tools.

Zoopla.co.uk was founded on the principles of transparency and efficiency and everything we do aims to make the market more effective for both property consumers and professionals alike. Our mission is to provide the most useful online property experience by:

• displaying property listings along with value and price trend information
• providing rich property data and local market information in one place
• enabling users to search for property in a variety of customised ways
• Allowing users to engage with professionals via our tools like AskMe!
• building relationships between home owners and local estate agents

By combining free, instant value estimates for every UK home with sold prices, local market information and hundreds of thousands of properties available for sale and to rent, Zoopla.co.uk has rapidly become the ultimate destination for property consumers to search for property and do their market research. Launched on 2008, we are the UK’s fastest growing property website, now attracting over 7 million visits per month and are proud to have been awarded numerous accolades including being listed in the Top 10 UK Tech Companies (Guardian) and the Top 10 Most Innovative UK Companies (Smarta 100) as well as being voted the UK’s Best Property Portal (Daily Mail Awards).

Our unique features, like AskMe!™ and TemptMe!™ allow users to gain an insight into the market and discover information they won’t find anywhere else. And our AskAnAgent feature has rapidly become one of the most valued sources of vendor leads for UK estate agents. We provide value estimates on every UK home - all 27 million - and calculate our estimates using a proprietary algorithm (secret formula) that continuously analyses millions of data points relating to property sales and home characteristics throughout the UK. Our estimates are constantly refined and updated daily, using the most recent data available and a variety of methodologies, in order to provide the most current and accurate value data on homes and areas across the UK.

Zoopla Ltd is a privately held company with a highly experienced and proven management team, backed by well-respected angel investors and leading venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Octopus Ventures.

For more information about Zoopla.co.uk become a fan on Facebook or follow @Zoopla.

For further information, please contact: Lawrence Hall at lawrence.hall at zoopla.co.uk or on +44(0)20-7620-4618