A survey of more than 1,000 UK home sellers to have sold in the last six months, found that one in five sellers had been gazundered when selling their home
While cases of gazundering have dropped across the property market since the beginning of the year, one in five sellers are still being offered unrealistically low bid by their buyer having previously accepted a higher offer.
This is according to the new research by property purchasing specialist House Buyer Bureau.
The survey of more than 1,000 UK home sellers to have sold in the last six months, found that one in five sellers had been gazundered when selling their home.
Gazundering is when a buyer submits a lower offer for the property they wish to buy before the sale completes, having already had a higher offer previously accepted.
Nevertheless, the survey finds that although one in five may have been gazundered in cooler market conditions, this figure has, at least, dropped. The same survey from House Buyer Bureau found that at the beginning of the year (February 2023), as many as 31 per cent of home sellers had been gazundered.
Of those to have fallen foul of a lower offer in the last six months, 47 per cent stated they were gazundered within two weeks before their completion date.
Around 73 per cent of those who have recently been gazundered also stated they had no other option but to accept the lower offer submitted by their buyers.
The main reason given for doing so was that they did not want to jeopardise their onward purchase (32 per cent), while many sellers also did not want to waste time finding another buyer (24 per cent) – a task that is no longer as simple as it was during the pandemic market boom.
The main reason given by gazundering buyers for submitting a lower offer was the fact that issues were found with the property during the survey stage of the transaction (36 per cent) although 22 per cent also admitted to simply chancing their arm.
Of those sellers who did not accept the lower offer submitted, 34 per cent said that the sale then went on to collapse, up from 21 per cent in February 2023.
House Buyer Bureau managing director Chris Hodgkinson believes that while the market is still underperforming, an air of growing stability has at least led to a reduced level of gazundering on the part of buyers.
