Gazumping falls overall in the UK residential listing market

Despite a shortage of supply in the UK listing market, the number of UK buyers being gazumped has dropped over the last 10 months, new research shows.

The practice, where a buyer makes a higher offer for a house than someone whose offer has already been accepted by the seller and thus succeed in acquiring the listing, has fallen by 40% since October 2014, according to a survey by online estate agent eMoov.

A year ago some 22% of all home owners had been gazumped during their listing purchase, however this has now reduced to 13%, particularly in Brighton which is no longer the gazumping hot spot with a fall of 68% in the practice.

Gazumping is also down in London by 46% with just 17% of buyers in London having experienced gazumping first hand. The firm suggests that this could be because prices and demand have levelled out.

Sheffield is named as the new gazumping capital of the UK. Some 29% of buyers in the city have been gazumped when looking to purchase a listing, an increase of 25% over the last 10 months.

The firm says that since December 2014, Sheffield has seen a steady increase in demand, up by 35% overall and this is almost certainly the main contributing factor to the increase in gazumping, as desperate buyers scramble to get a foot on the ladder by any means possible.

Plymouth has also seen an increase in gazumping of 31% which coincides with a strong uplift in listing demand in the area since the end of last year with growth of 27%. Newcastle is the only other UK city to see an increase in gazumping during this time frame, with 16% of buyers being gazumped, a rise of 12%.

Other cities where gazumping is still more prevalent despite a drop are Birmingham at 17%, Leeds at 16%, Manchester at 15%, Nottingham and Bristol both at 12% and Brighton at 11%. At just 2%, Southampton had the lowest rate of gazumping in the UK.

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Source: Property News Spain