There has been a significant increase in gazundering, with vendors pressured to accept less money, new research shows.
With buyer demand low compared with recent years, owing in part to higher mortgage borrowing rates, more sellers experienced gazundering last year, with more purchasers reducing their offers at the late stage of negotiations to try and pressure the seller into accepting less money, and that trend appears to be continuing into 2024.
A new survey of home sellers to have sold in the last 12 months, commissioned by Open Property Group, found that a quarter – 26% – had been gazundered, with a third – 22% – reporting price chipping within two weeks of the exchange of contracts.
The study revealed that 78% of those who were gazundered decided to accept the lower offer.
When asked why, the predominant reasons given were that they didn’t want to waste more time finding another buyer (35%), they didn’t want to jeopardise their onward purchase (22%) and they didn’t want to go through the wider process of selling again (14%).
The main issue cited by gazundering buyers was issues found when conducting the survey (35%), however, 24% were simply chancing their arm, while a further 16% gave no explanation.
Jason Harris-Cohen, CEO of Open Property Group, said: “Much like gazumping, gazundering is an unfortunate part of the property selling process that many sellers will be subject to at some point, although it’s certainly more prevalent in cooler market conditions, such as those we’ve seen develop over the last year.
“It can be a very stressful occurrence for sellers and unfortunately, as there’s no legal requirement to proceed with a purchase until the exchange of contracts, there’s not a great deal you can do, leaving many sellers with little choice but to accept the lower offer.”
