Buyers drive a hard bargain as home sellers opt for discounts to seal deal

As new figures show house price growth beginning to flatten out across the UK, home buyers are starting to drive a hard bargain when it comes to securing their new property.

Hometrack's UK Cities House Price Index for April shows house price inflation running at +1.7 percent, down on the same month a year ago.

There are stark differences across the regions with Glasgow showing inflation of 5 percent, but London down to -0.5 percent.

However, the main effect of slowing growth can be seen in the discounts now being offered by sellers keen to secure a sale.

According to Hometrack, the discounts between asking and achieved prices are increasing in almost all of the cities in its survey, excluding Leicester. Nationally, the average discount for the first quarter of 2019 has been 3.9 percent with Aberdeen, London, Oxford, Newcastle and Liverpool all registering above-average discounts on sold prices.

Scotland's two biggest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, are bucking any discount trend with sellers there continuing to achieve a high premium over asking prices.

However, in London the average discount from asking price is now 5.7 percent, up from 1 percent in 2016 and 4.8 percent last year.

Inner-city sellers in London are prepared to accept the biggest reduction on their hoped-for sale price at an average 7.6 percent.

Hometrack's report noted: "We expect the price adjustment in London to continue, although we do expect sales volumes to tick upwards.

"The slowdown in the rate of growth will extend further across the south of England, while we expect continued above-average house price growth in regional cities where employment levels continue to grow and affordability is attractive."