Nearly a third of homesellers within the last six months have reported being gazundered by their buyer, new research from House Buyer Bureau has revealed.
What’s more, for 33%, the gazundering – the practice of lowballing a seller once the sale progresses having previously agreed a higher price – happened within a week of their exchange date, with a further 15% stating it occurred within two weeks.
Of those who were gazundered, 75% decided to press ahead with the transaction, accepting the lower offer. Of those that didn’t, 21% said the sale ended up collapsing.
When asked why they decided to continue on with their original buyer, the predominant reason given was that the seller believed the lower offer was still a fair one.
The second most common reason given was that they didn’t want to jeopardise their onward sale, while many sellers also didn’t want to waste more time finding another buyer.
When asked what the reason was for their buyer gazundering them, the most common reasons given were that there were issues found during the survey process, as well as survey issues resulting in a downvaluation.
However, many sellers also stated that they believed their buyer was just chancing their arm in order to secure a discount.
“We’ve heard a lot in recent years about the backhanded practice of gazumping, with high demand and inadequate stock levels resulting in many buyers trying to outbid their rivals right to the death,” said Managing Director of House Buyer Bureau Chris Hodgkinson, continuing:
“However, the market has certainly dropped down a gear or two in recent months and we’ve started to see the record rates of pandemic house price growth start to subside.
Despite these cooling market conditions, there remains an air of stubbornness amongst the nation’s sellers who are yet to fully accept this change in market temperature and, as a result, almost a third are being gazundered with a lower offer having originally agreed a price with their buyer.
