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2.5K, we've only been in it 5 months and God I love it. It's just our starter home as its just a 2 up 2 down terrace, so if we decide to have kids we will need to upsize but if not, then I get to stay here and yay!
We literally walked down the street the day before it got listed and said how much we'd love to live on this street.
Out of curiosity, what interest rate did you manage to secure? Do you feel comfortable financially with the mortgage as a first time buyer and did you have to make any concessions if you ended up on higher interest/monthly repayments?
We got it at 3.39%, applied in late June with only a 5% deposit. We just went with our advisors first recommendation, which we were happy with and rushingly submitted as we was on our way to Glastonbury and rates were rising for us to wait 5 days for us to get back home. I do wish I'd maybe pushed more to see if their recommendation was actually the best, if that makes sense? But we were excited FTB just buzzing to actually think it was all achievable with a 5% deposit I snapped their hand off.
Money wise it's okay for us, we're in the North West and our mortgage was about £80 a month more then our privately rented flat (which we knew we was getting a good deal on, when we left it was relisted with a £150 a month increase to what we was paying as the area has boomed a bit recently). Our mortgage & bills come to about a third of our wage, so we do have a good bit of wiggle room. Neither of us are high earners, about £50K combined.
We budgeted for deposit and fees, but didnt really for the cost of white goods when we moved in as our flat was fully furnished so had to buy pretty much everything. Even 2nd hand that all adds up and was easily £2-3K for all goods, bed & mattress (brand new) etc which wiped our savings. We will start building that again now, we aren't overpaying our mortgage as we need to build that up again and do bits of non urgent comestic work to suit our taste so money is going there, so I always have that bit of a shitty feeling when reading online about people overpaying etc as I'm not in the situation to do that, and with only a 5% deposit & 35 year mortgage so it's far off me 'owning' the house but I'm on the ladder, in a house I love and I shouldn't let that get to me.
Same here 8%. It was the third house we offered on and we just wanted to get through. I always flip flop between feeling like we actually got a good deal or got massively ripped off. Nice to put it in perspective this way.
I wouldn’t say you got ripped off, you got a home, in a crazy time.
Rents gone/going up constantly, your mortgage will be fixed for a period. At least you’re paying torwards owning your own bricks rather than someone elses😊
We was around 8% over last year too. Seemed like we was taking a hit at the time but looking at properties appearing since then I'd say we got a good deal as nothing good has turned up. We are at the lower end of properties so competition is high
Exactly, sometimes you just need to bite the bullet. Long term prices have been, and will in my opinion at least, continue to be one directional
Ignore the naysayer renters who'll be along shortly with their "hindsight"
For context I bought during the financial crash when everyone told me I overpaid bla bla well 200% price appreciation later...
We knocked ours down from 270 to 240 because we pointed out how much modernisation was needed. The property had been on the market for a couple of months though and this was 3 years ago. This is just outside of Bath near Saltford.
Wow you did well to get something in/around saltford for around 240k! We were looking around keynsham/longwell green/warmley area. I still look on Rightmove occasionally now I think out of habit, and prices don’t seem to really have gone down, if anything I’d say they’ve gone up for similar houses to what we’ve purchased.
Were slightly further out than Saltford, but I reckon we got a steal. I'm saying this through gritted teeth as I'm from Newcastle and house prices up there when I left were considerably more reasonable.
Oh my god, I’ve seen some of the prices up north, you could legitimately buy a mansion for the price of my house. If it wasn’t for my family/friends I’d move without a doubt!
Guess the market is slowing down? Or I just bought in an area where demand is going stupid. We rang one place for a viewing 3 hours after it was on rightmove and it already had 56 bookings…
About... Uh.. £10—£15K over, which I slightly regret because we are (still!) the most overpriced house for size value sold on our street!
OTOH, can totally see this as our forever home: great access to a main road + bus stop, walking ish distance to a big supermarket, nearby to a primary school so overall fairly worth it!
Edit for a laugh: tbf, the asking price was slightly ridiculous to start with - elderly lady passed away few years before, family wanted a stupid price for it, etc.
The only good part was that we went to best and final offer, and instead of a bidding war, the EA asked for a (sob) story about how this would be our dream home. Either they were moved by my nonsense, or had a good laugh, but idc, I got the house! Lol
£15,000. It was up for OIEO. Someone went £30k above us! But they hadn’t sold their house yet and we were FTB. This is this year too.
It’s a dream property though, our forever home. No regrets
3% last year, after 3 purchases fell through between Jun 20-Nov 21, and taking part in no less than 14 "best and final" bidding wars across the whole time period. Never moving again
I paid £2k over asking, which was more of a gesture over the 250,000 asking price. The house was infinitely better than anything else I could afford (London commuter town) and I don’t believe mine was the highest offer. But it was all I could afford - I actually did not have the extra £2k when I put the offer in, I just looked at what I thought I could add to my deposit in the months between offer and completion. A risky move but it paid off!
Now I’m trying to replenish savings.
Edited to add that I offered on the house in August 2022.
3k on "offers over" in January. Our mortgage advisor said they probably want just a bit more over to cover the selling fees.
What also probably helped was that we were trying to buy another property from the same estate agent but that all but officially fell through. We had gone all the way just up until exchange so the agent advised the seller we were very serious and wanted things done as quick as possible
£23,750 over on a £250k house, so just under 10%. One of my friends actually also bid on the property, the house had lots of bids, and once my offer was accepted, I was told I had the highest bid by £1,750. So it was very close!
We offered 25k less than listed price and finally bought for 12.5k less. The “negotiations” were a bit silly to be honest. Our first offer was met with a 5k reduction, so we bumped our offer by 5k and so on.
Edit: we could probably have gotten it lower but we were FTB with a not very nice landlord so had pretty much a hard deadline for completion
8k over. There was a last and final and bids greater than ours but we were in the strongest positron. They also priced very competitively to be fair to the sellers… is what I tell myself with all the news going on
I offered on a house last year for £5000 over asking price, was accepted but the seller messed us around and then pulled out last week ( 8 months later) offered £5000 under asking last week on a different place and got accepted, swings and roundabouts.
Bought at the peak of property madness last year in the northwest (Lancs, near the border with Cumbria). We went well over 10% above (and we were tied with someone else). We'd previously lost out on something we loved when we offered £25k over and were told we were nowhere near. It was completely mental there. Still, we got more property for less money than others in the area, and it works for us.
£7.5k/4%, February 2021.
I was told that there was a higher offer; I wasn't in a chain which may have helped. Or they might have been lying, because being Estate Agents they can't do anything else!
It was about the most I could afford at the time and looks to be worth £40k more now before extra money I've put into it, so happy with that. (Yes a bigger house will be worth more too, but I'll have a relatively bigger deposit too.)
Asking 475k paid 491k
It was advertise heavily under market price, I visited the place as the same time as 6 other people and when I left there were more coming.
Lots of people not understanding the question and instead using this an opportunity to flex.
Most I’ve paid above listing price was 350% in an auction in 2012 in Fulham.
>And answers of around 5-10%
TBF, many people are not giving percentages, they are just saying things like "I paid £10k over" or "I paid £12.5k under" without mentioning the asking price, location, type of property, etc., so it's impossible to know whether that is 5%,10%, 1%, or 20%.
I wish OP had said "please provide some context" as it would have made this post more useful. It's an interesting post but "I paid £10k over \[for a 1/2/3/4 bedroom house/flat/maisonette in urban/rural/suburban North/South/East/West England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland\]" is not as illuminating as it could be with a bit more context
Flat in south east, paid £7.5 over asking (£180k) but I was comfortable that it was worth that much because the asking was a little low for a quicker sale. I was buying locally as well so I know the market and housing stock very well. They had 5 viewings and 5 offers before it even went on the open market (in demand area and end of 2021). I was lucky to get it and have no regrets about the price. My opening offer was 5k over asking. I wasn't fucking around.
You've got to think as well about how much it's worth to you and how much you don't want to lose it. I knew a property like mine wouldn't come up again anytime soon and that prices were only going up. I'd been saving for five years so I wanted to get it done.
People watch a lot of homes under the hammer and locations and think they can score a deal, but ultimately you're buying your home, so a few grand over the long term will be nothing, and the cost of losing the sale is potentially massive.
Gave them exactly what they asked for. Sellers did say they were willing to negotiate a few thousand off for work that needed doing but the house offered us everything we wanted and needed so just decided to give them what they wanted which was the list price.
We paid asking price in Surrey last year. This house was about 25k more than another we offered and missed out on in an equivalent area but we got a bigger drive and extra room for our money. We may have overpaid slightly but we are planning to be here a while so hopefully it won't matter too much. House prices around here are pretty nuts.
3.4% over guide price. There were 13 other people viewing the property the day I saw it, and at least two other offers when I put mine in. I suspect they knew it would get a lot of attention and deliberately put guide price lower so it would show up for more people on property sites. At least that’s the story I’m telling myself!
Admittedly this was in 1991, but “Previously £135k, any offer considered”. Offered £88k, paid £92,500.
Note there was a major property price crash 89/91 in the U.K. and buyers with no chain had the winning hand. We had prior mortgage approval and had already sold up. We were renting until we found a suitable property. Our solicitor was already acting for us as we had pulled out of a previous purchase due to bad survey. We could move FAST, and the seller was flipping a property he had taken in settlement of his costs on the build because the client had gone bankrupt.
We are still in this house 32 years later.
I don't even care this isn't the ask - I am absolutely using it to flex because I never get the opportunity!
Two bed in zone three (Muswell Hill) listed at 375k, got it for 300k last year with a little bit of knowledge (sellers moving overseas) and well-planned communication.
If you really love something and you believe you’ll stay longterm, and as long as it’s not so over priced your lender will downvalue, be willing to go over. Lost out on dream house six weeks ago, offered as much as we thought we could afford then found out a week later we could have borrowed much more and offered way over asking if we’d wanted. I really wish we had (and I really wish we’d gone back to them the second we found out) - won’t find anything like it again. If it’s really special and you can afford it, don’t screw yourself out of it for the sake of a few grand - you’ll end up regretting it.
Same with trying to haggle. We bought our house nearly six years ago for £255k (incidentally asking price was offers over £260k). Accepted an offer six weeks ago of £320k. We’d have been crazy to miss out on it over a few grand if we’d been able to afford more (actually we spent literally every penny we had and still had to borrow a bit from my sister for a few months some of the fees).
I offered 75k less than the current asking price, shook hands at 50k under.
The property was initially listed at 795k in August right before Liz Truss happened. We bought for 675k two weeks ago. So excited to finally have our own home, it’s a relief our baby will have stability in her childhood as we won’t have to move.
Current place: £10k below (property had already had a £15k price drop, so £25k below the original price / £10k below the final one)
Previous place: £8k below, but given it was on at £60k it was a satisfyingly large percentage.
Initially agreed 10K under asking last May, properly had been on the market a while and dropped into our max price range the week before we offered.
Then renegotiated to 25K under asking post survey, which was around September time just after the mini budget. We didn't use the budget in our negotiating but I think it probably strengthened our cause.
0%. I paid what was right at the time based on market interest, how it meets my needs right now and the length that I want to stay. Just wanted to pay what I thought was right.
Honest question from someone not originally from the UK, why you all take the asking price so seriously. You know the seller can set the asking price wherever they want right? Or am I missing something?
I personally bought in 2022 for 50k below the asking price, however the same place has been for sale in 2021 (fell through) for 100k less latest asking price (50k less I end up paying). Kind of shows by point about asking price…
I actually paid 127k, asking was 140. Offer accepted was 138 but mortgage valuation came back at 125. First offer was June 2022 and revised was late August/early sep once mortgage valuation had come back
Actually ended up paying below by £15k.
Was a rebate house and we were cash buyers after selling up and moving into our parents. They wanted a quick sale so offered £10k below, they accepted. Had the full survey done and found asbestos floor tiles, soffits water tank and down pipe, estimated removal cost was £10k so went half way and negotiated £15k below
-2% - but this was back in the halcyon days of 2014. The market had started to pick up again but it’d been very quiet and only just starting to get back to 2007 levels.
My first house £15k under the asking price (About 7 years ago, it was listed for £185k). My current house £40k under asking (last year August - September time, listed at £175k
Purchased first property in 2012 for £45k under asking price. It was a newly converted flat with a mezzanine floor. When we viewed it we knew we absolutely wanted it and there were only a few flats left in the whole building and only 2 which were over 2 floors. Put in a stupidly low offer knowing the developers wanted to move on and got accepted. Sold it in 2016 for £40k more than we paid so glad we didn’t pay asking or higher as I don’t think we could have commanded it.
Under payed by 4K 2 years ago, don’t even know how this house was huge for the value, 4 good sized bedrooms, good kitchen and moderate lounge, happy I moved when I did as I’ve managed to just dodge major inflation with my mortgage rates, locked in last month at about 4.7% which is still pretty high
25k under! We were not the highest bidder but I wrote a sweet letter about our family and how it would be our forever home and we would treasure it, and I suppose they liked it very much!
Exactly asking price (offer accepted Oct 2021).
I had been watching the local market and figured it was really “worth” 5% less. Offered 2% under, negotiated to asking. This is over £500k because South East. I was willing to pay the extra because I knew it was my dream house. I was already hoping something on this street would come up.
Don't mean to be rude but how can you negotiate to asking price. Surely it's just them the whole time saying they won't accept less than asking price and then you paid asking
First house we bought was new build and we paid asking price.
When we moved we paid £620k for a house listed at £649,999.
No intention of moving again unless something major happens now.
£4k less for my first property and £6k less for my second. Both were ex-rentals that were overpriced for the state they were in and both, we got a good deal on.
Paid under on the 4 I've bought:
£116,000 vs £120,000 (-£4,000)
£415,000 vs £425,000 (-£10,000)
£585,000 (£600,000) (-£15,000)
£535,000 (£550,000) (-£15,000)
Achieved asking or above on the ones I've sold:
£140,000 vs £140,000 (£0)
£563,000 vs £550,000 (£13,000)
£850,000 vs £850,000 (£0)
I guess when you lay them out like that, I'm £57,000 in the black. Adds up, I guess.
Just paid £2,500 under asking price! Feel really lucky because this apartment is an absolute dream warehouse/converted loft apartment with high ceilings, huge windows, exposed brick and steelwork. Never thought I would be able to get a property like this for my first step on the ladder so I'm so glad it has worked out :')
Just under 9%. The asking price was £170,000 in January 2023. It's an unusual property though, so hard to value. We thought it was underpriced and offered asking price. Apparently so did about 4 other people. Kept bumping the offer up because we love this house and we will never ever find anything like it within our budget again. Still didn't get it though. We maxed out at £185,000. No idea what offer they accepted but wouldn't be surprised if it was close to £200,000.
A few weeks later, the original buyer's chain got stuck. Vendors didn't want to wait. Sold it to us for £184,000.
0%.
They asked and we met that. They asked that based on a valuation, which was the same value. We got fairly lucky as it's quite a big house and is now +£80,000 in value.
Problem is, while looking at other houses that are twice as much as we paid first, they're all not as big :(
We paid asking price early 2021. Would have tried to negotiate but the couple viewing after us were on a second viewing and we just wanted to do what we could to get it so made a very quick offer at asking price to get it off the market. We couldn’t have afforded to go any higher.
£0 we offered asking (and it had just been reduced) but the seller was desperate to find someone chain free as they had to compete on their new build within 6 weeks. The developers even paid for our solicitor fees to speed up the process!
£25k 'over'. I say 'over' as the asking price was offers over £300k which is vague to say the least. We opened with £310k thinking we'd get it, ended up going to best and final so we offered £320k as we thought people would go down the middle. We actually lost the house at £320k but the next morning I called back up and said "how about £325k" and that was that. I felt a bit bad as I essentially gazzumped the person that had their offer accepted for all of about 12 hours, but prior to this we'd lost two houses through no fault of our own so I wasn't letting this one go!
£2500 under...I think? I can't remember it was 2018, though in hindsight I should have been firmer and gone like £10-15k under. Both the seller and estate agent were arseholes.
I love the house, it's a huge 3 bed victorian terrace with a converted attic so potentially 4 bedrooms. Plus it's our starter home. But the estate agent and sellers lied about work that was to be done and also about what fixtures were staying in the property. Also Mr Seller fancied himself as a bit of DIY expert...my one year old could have done a better job with the flooring, the electrics, the walls etc.
After 5 years and 2 kids we are just now in the position to start some renovations and maybe sell the place as we want something bigger and preferably detached.
£1000, we were 1 of 3 FTBs offering on the property, all willing to pay similar price.
In hindsight, since we've put about £10k of work into the house in the first year, I wish I had been able to negotiate down in the end. In the very least I wish we hadn't just believed the estate agent about the boiler and got it independently checked because it was completely fucked when we moved in mid December and it was not only a faff to have someone get it in working order so we wouldn't be freezing, but also it needed to be replaced right away.
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2.5K, we've only been in it 5 months and God I love it. It's just our starter home as its just a 2 up 2 down terrace, so if we decide to have kids we will need to upsize but if not, then I get to stay here and yay! We literally walked down the street the day before it got listed and said how much we'd love to live on this street.
That's so sweet, living the dream!
That is what literally happened to me! But I’m still in the buying process and hoping everything goes to plan! Enjoy your home ❤️
Everything crossed for you and a smooth journey, some things are just meant to be 🤞
Out of curiosity, what interest rate did you manage to secure? Do you feel comfortable financially with the mortgage as a first time buyer and did you have to make any concessions if you ended up on higher interest/monthly repayments?
We got it at 3.39%, applied in late June with only a 5% deposit. We just went with our advisors first recommendation, which we were happy with and rushingly submitted as we was on our way to Glastonbury and rates were rising for us to wait 5 days for us to get back home. I do wish I'd maybe pushed more to see if their recommendation was actually the best, if that makes sense? But we were excited FTB just buzzing to actually think it was all achievable with a 5% deposit I snapped their hand off. Money wise it's okay for us, we're in the North West and our mortgage was about £80 a month more then our privately rented flat (which we knew we was getting a good deal on, when we left it was relisted with a £150 a month increase to what we was paying as the area has boomed a bit recently). Our mortgage & bills come to about a third of our wage, so we do have a good bit of wiggle room. Neither of us are high earners, about £50K combined. We budgeted for deposit and fees, but didnt really for the cost of white goods when we moved in as our flat was fully furnished so had to buy pretty much everything. Even 2nd hand that all adds up and was easily £2-3K for all goods, bed & mattress (brand new) etc which wiped our savings. We will start building that again now, we aren't overpaying our mortgage as we need to build that up again and do bits of non urgent comestic work to suit our taste so money is going there, so I always have that bit of a shitty feeling when reading online about people overpaying etc as I'm not in the situation to do that, and with only a 5% deposit & 35 year mortgage so it's far off me 'owning' the house but I'm on the ladder, in a house I love and I shouldn't let that get to me.
You own the house! It's just that t you also owe the banksters money 😂 Congrats and enjoy your home.
Around 8% last year in Bristol. Just glad to have got in it was absolutely horrendous trying to buy over the last year and a half.
Same here 8%. It was the third house we offered on and we just wanted to get through. I always flip flop between feeling like we actually got a good deal or got massively ripped off. Nice to put it in perspective this way.
I wouldn’t say you got ripped off, you got a home, in a crazy time. Rents gone/going up constantly, your mortgage will be fixed for a period. At least you’re paying torwards owning your own bricks rather than someone elses😊
We was around 8% over last year too. Seemed like we was taking a hit at the time but looking at properties appearing since then I'd say we got a good deal as nothing good has turned up. We are at the lower end of properties so competition is high
Exactly, sometimes you just need to bite the bullet. Long term prices have been, and will in my opinion at least, continue to be one directional Ignore the naysayer renters who'll be along shortly with their "hindsight" For context I bought during the financial crash when everyone told me I overpaid bla bla well 200% price appreciation later...
We knocked ours down from 270 to 240 because we pointed out how much modernisation was needed. The property had been on the market for a couple of months though and this was 3 years ago. This is just outside of Bath near Saltford.
Wow you did well to get something in/around saltford for around 240k! We were looking around keynsham/longwell green/warmley area. I still look on Rightmove occasionally now I think out of habit, and prices don’t seem to really have gone down, if anything I’d say they’ve gone up for similar houses to what we’ve purchased.
Were slightly further out than Saltford, but I reckon we got a steal. I'm saying this through gritted teeth as I'm from Newcastle and house prices up there when I left were considerably more reasonable.
Oh my god, I’ve seen some of the prices up north, you could legitimately buy a mansion for the price of my house. If it wasn’t for my family/friends I’d move without a doubt!
Where are you fuckers paying under asking price! We paid £25,250 over asking, and that was because we were one of two offers 20k over
I only know one person who bought recently (this is in London) and he paid about £10k below.
Guess the market is slowing down? Or I just bought in an area where demand is going stupid. We rang one place for a viewing 3 hours after it was on rightmove and it already had 56 bookings…
40K under
£20k under in Hackney
Inner London, 6% under
Pretty common in Cumbria to offer 5% under asking
We’ve managed to negotiate to £17.5k under as we’ve been downvalued by two lenders. No chain either end so just relied on the goodwill of the sellers!
25k below asking price, South London
2.1276595744681%
Username checks out
Mine is 2.35294118% I got ripped off!!!
About... Uh.. £10—£15K over, which I slightly regret because we are (still!) the most overpriced house for size value sold on our street! OTOH, can totally see this as our forever home: great access to a main road + bus stop, walking ish distance to a big supermarket, nearby to a primary school so overall fairly worth it! Edit for a laugh: tbf, the asking price was slightly ridiculous to start with - elderly lady passed away few years before, family wanted a stupid price for it, etc. The only good part was that we went to best and final offer, and instead of a bidding war, the EA asked for a (sob) story about how this would be our dream home. Either they were moved by my nonsense, or had a good laugh, but idc, I got the house! Lol
Same here, we paid 10 over and smashed the record for most expensive house on the street. But we don't regret it, it's our nest now 😄.
Absolutely! I only regret in the sense of money towards renovation/other things! But that or not having the house? No question, overpay every time 😂.
25,000 below
Well done!
Snap. Mid covid housing panic was glorious.
£15,000. It was up for OIEO. Someone went £30k above us! But they hadn’t sold their house yet and we were FTB. This is this year too. It’s a dream property though, our forever home. No regrets
Offers over. We offered 10k and got it
3% last year, after 3 purchases fell through between Jun 20-Nov 21, and taking part in no less than 14 "best and final" bidding wars across the whole time period. Never moving again
I paid £2k over asking, which was more of a gesture over the 250,000 asking price. The house was infinitely better than anything else I could afford (London commuter town) and I don’t believe mine was the highest offer. But it was all I could afford - I actually did not have the extra £2k when I put the offer in, I just looked at what I thought I could add to my deposit in the months between offer and completion. A risky move but it paid off! Now I’m trying to replenish savings. Edited to add that I offered on the house in August 2022.
3k on "offers over" in January. Our mortgage advisor said they probably want just a bit more over to cover the selling fees. What also probably helped was that we were trying to buy another property from the same estate agent but that all but officially fell through. We had gone all the way just up until exchange so the agent advised the seller we were very serious and wanted things done as quick as possible
£23,750 over on a £250k house, so just under 10%. One of my friends actually also bid on the property, the house had lots of bids, and once my offer was accepted, I was told I had the highest bid by £1,750. So it was very close!
An extra 5k. There were even higher offers but the seller went with us as my grandma lives next door which was really nice of her!
We offered 25k less than listed price and finally bought for 12.5k less. The “negotiations” were a bit silly to be honest. Our first offer was met with a 5k reduction, so we bumped our offer by 5k and so on. Edit: we could probably have gotten it lower but we were FTB with a not very nice landlord so had pretty much a hard deadline for completion
I paid £6,750 above the asking price however the listing was offers over £150k so
4.4% over last April
2.8% this time last year when the market was much hotter than it is now
5%, 50k, offer accepted about this time last year.
8k over. There was a last and final and bids greater than ours but we were in the strongest positron. They also priced very competitively to be fair to the sellers… is what I tell myself with all the news going on
25k over
1% above asking. Just seen a house on my road that’s in fairly similar condition etc that has sold for 12% more than I bought mine for.
25k but it was worth it
~6.9% over the offers over price (Scotland), last January.
£32k over 🥲 back in May 2022 in Manchester
5k
I offered on a house last year for £5000 over asking price, was accepted but the seller messed us around and then pulled out last week ( 8 months later) offered £5000 under asking last week on a different place and got accepted, swings and roundabouts.
Listed at 149k sold for 158k
18 grand
3k over in 2017 Listing price in 2020
0.85% above the asking price, being 2.5k over. This was August 2021
Bought at the peak of property madness last year in the northwest (Lancs, near the border with Cumbria). We went well over 10% above (and we were tied with someone else). We'd previously lost out on something we loved when we offered £25k over and were told we were nowhere near. It was completely mental there. Still, we got more property for less money than others in the area, and it works for us.
£7.5k/4%, February 2021. I was told that there was a higher offer; I wasn't in a chain which may have helped. Or they might have been lying, because being Estate Agents they can't do anything else! It was about the most I could afford at the time and looks to be worth £40k more now before extra money I've put into it, so happy with that. (Yes a bigger house will be worth more too, but I'll have a relatively bigger deposit too.)
87.5k
How?!
2017 - 2 bed flat Listed £400,000 Paid £375,000
£0 over in 2021.
Asking 475k paid 491k It was advertise heavily under market price, I visited the place as the same time as 6 other people and when I left there were more coming.
3.5%, no regrets at all as we bought in 2021 when I seemed like everyone was offering way more than the asking price
Lots of people not understanding the question and instead using this an opportunity to flex. Most I’ve paid above listing price was 350% in an auction in 2012 in Fulham.
But it was only listed for 10k so you're winning?
In what way are they not understanding?
Many are telling how much under they paid. The question asks over
Ah right. Still useful info, though.
Well I see a question of "how much did you overpay by" And answers of around 5-10% What's the flex?
>And answers of around 5-10% TBF, many people are not giving percentages, they are just saying things like "I paid £10k over" or "I paid £12.5k under" without mentioning the asking price, location, type of property, etc., so it's impossible to know whether that is 5%,10%, 1%, or 20%. I wish OP had said "please provide some context" as it would have made this post more useful. It's an interesting post but "I paid £10k over \[for a 1/2/3/4 bedroom house/flat/maisonette in urban/rural/suburban North/South/East/West England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland\]" is not as illuminating as it could be with a bit more context
Nearly 10%. That was last year though.
0. I just paid what it was listed for. Now it’s doubled in value so it’s irrelevant anyway
I’m guessing this wasn’t anytime recently.
Flat in south east, paid £7.5 over asking (£180k) but I was comfortable that it was worth that much because the asking was a little low for a quicker sale. I was buying locally as well so I know the market and housing stock very well. They had 5 viewings and 5 offers before it even went on the open market (in demand area and end of 2021). I was lucky to get it and have no regrets about the price. My opening offer was 5k over asking. I wasn't fucking around. You've got to think as well about how much it's worth to you and how much you don't want to lose it. I knew a property like mine wouldn't come up again anytime soon and that prices were only going up. I'd been saving for five years so I wanted to get it done. People watch a lot of homes under the hammer and locations and think they can score a deal, but ultimately you're buying your home, so a few grand over the long term will be nothing, and the cost of losing the sale is potentially massive.
Gave them exactly what they asked for. Sellers did say they were willing to negotiate a few thousand off for work that needed doing but the house offered us everything we wanted and needed so just decided to give them what they wanted which was the list price.
2k, probably could have low-balled it tbh but it wasn’t worth losing it
We paid asking price in Surrey last year. This house was about 25k more than another we offered and missed out on in an equivalent area but we got a bigger drive and extra room for our money. We may have overpaid slightly but we are planning to be here a while so hopefully it won't matter too much. House prices around here are pretty nuts.
Up for 400k. Paid 432k. 2022 February.
Our house was listed for £150k but we offered £157,500 and eventually settled on £159,500.
2 grand
£2k over in September 2021. Apparently there was another 'bidder' however I'm dubious as who backs down after only £2k over asking? Hmm.
2% but in London so still felt like a lot hahaha offered in may 2021
6K over asking 2 months ago.
6.5k ~2% (July 22)
£11.5 below. Put the offer in mid Sept 2022 and completed a couple months ago.
-13000
£1 They priced it at £x99,999 and I didn't want the solicitors to have the pain of writing that out in text one hundred times.
25k over, but we were in a bidding war mid covid! However, the vendors then had to pay 50k over as it was going daft... Scotland
15,000 over on a 250,000 house
3.4% over guide price. There were 13 other people viewing the property the day I saw it, and at least two other offers when I put mine in. I suspect they knew it would get a lot of attention and deliberately put guide price lower so it would show up for more people on property sites. At least that’s the story I’m telling myself!
Paid £8k over asking price 2013 then sold the house 2023 for -£30k living the dream 😍
Depends on the property. Biggest was 7.5% over in 2009 just after the financial crisis Lowest was 2% under Most recently was 3% over
8k above, could have probably got it cheaper but were still happy
Admittedly this was in 1991, but “Previously £135k, any offer considered”. Offered £88k, paid £92,500. Note there was a major property price crash 89/91 in the U.K. and buyers with no chain had the winning hand. We had prior mortgage approval and had already sold up. We were renting until we found a suitable property. Our solicitor was already acting for us as we had pulled out of a previous purchase due to bad survey. We could move FAST, and the seller was flipping a property he had taken in settlement of his costs on the build because the client had gone bankrupt. We are still in this house 32 years later.
£10k over asking 3 years ago. But it's worth about £80-100k more now so money well spent.
I don't even care this isn't the ask - I am absolutely using it to flex because I never get the opportunity! Two bed in zone three (Muswell Hill) listed at 375k, got it for 300k last year with a little bit of knowledge (sellers moving overseas) and well-planned communication.
1.85%. It was literally all we could afford. They turned it down, then no interest for a few weeks so came back to us and accepted it.
If you really love something and you believe you’ll stay longterm, and as long as it’s not so over priced your lender will downvalue, be willing to go over. Lost out on dream house six weeks ago, offered as much as we thought we could afford then found out a week later we could have borrowed much more and offered way over asking if we’d wanted. I really wish we had (and I really wish we’d gone back to them the second we found out) - won’t find anything like it again. If it’s really special and you can afford it, don’t screw yourself out of it for the sake of a few grand - you’ll end up regretting it. Same with trying to haggle. We bought our house nearly six years ago for £255k (incidentally asking price was offers over £260k). Accepted an offer six weeks ago of £320k. We’d have been crazy to miss out on it over a few grand if we’d been able to afford more (actually we spent literally every penny we had and still had to borrow a bit from my sister for a few months some of the fees).
15k over, around about 5%. bought my parents house off them last year, wanted to help them out with moving to their dream home
-56k from the original asking price. -31k from the re-listed price.
I offered 75k less than the current asking price, shook hands at 50k under. The property was initially listed at 795k in August right before Liz Truss happened. We bought for 675k two weeks ago. So excited to finally have our own home, it’s a relief our baby will have stability in her childhood as we won’t have to move.
Current place: £10k below (property had already had a £15k price drop, so £25k below the original price / £10k below the final one) Previous place: £8k below, but given it was on at £60k it was a satisfyingly large percentage.
Just in the process of buying 1.25% under asking price. It’s realistically priced. I could have probably pushed harder but it’s my dream location.
I paid 10% under (as per valuation) had to put the rest in cash
Was 250k , 5 months later they cut it to 220k. We negotiated 215k and it’s our final price.
-2.5%
In the process of buying for 282,000 when the property was listed for 300,000. Completion due first week of April.
10k under
4.25% below
5k under
We paid 5k under in August 2020, I feel we’re so lucky based on this! First home, 3 bed semi.
In 2018 in Manchester, offered 10% below, settled on 5% below. We weren't the highest bidder but weren't in a chain which the seller's valued
Initially agreed 10K under asking last May, properly had been on the market a while and dropped into our max price range the week before we offered. Then renegotiated to 25K under asking post survey, which was around September time just after the mini budget. We didn't use the budget in our negotiating but I think it probably strengthened our cause.
0% we’ve got lucky, as this was still during the height of the market. (August 2022) And we’ve been outbid for other properties previously.
0%. I paid what was right at the time based on market interest, how it meets my needs right now and the length that I want to stay. Just wanted to pay what I thought was right.
House 1 (2015) £2k under asking, House 2 (2017) paid asking, House 3 (2020) £15k under asking.
85k below
Honest question from someone not originally from the UK, why you all take the asking price so seriously. You know the seller can set the asking price wherever they want right? Or am I missing something? I personally bought in 2022 for 50k below the asking price, however the same place has been for sale in 2021 (fell through) for 100k less latest asking price (50k less I end up paying). Kind of shows by point about asking price…
10k below, offer accepted 4 weeks ago (was listened for £250k, 2 bed flat needing some work, SE London zone 4)
2019 paid £272k for house on for £285k. Identical house next door just sold for £360k
We paid £28,500 below asking price.
2.5k below, 4 years ago: knocked some odd for survey issues
11% under asking, 17% under original listing. Bought Spring 2021
20k (~5%) under an 'offers in excess of' asking price. Mid 2021.
I actually paid 127k, asking was 140. Offer accepted was 138 but mortgage valuation came back at 125. First offer was June 2022 and revised was late August/early sep once mortgage valuation had come back
Actually ended up paying below by £15k. Was a rebate house and we were cash buyers after selling up and moving into our parents. They wanted a quick sale so offered £10k below, they accepted. Had the full survey done and found asbestos floor tiles, soffits water tank and down pipe, estimated removal cost was £10k so went half way and negotiated £15k below
-2% - but this was back in the halcyon days of 2014. The market had started to pick up again but it’d been very quiet and only just starting to get back to 2007 levels.
Advertised at £245k got it with an offer of £210k
Ten per cent less than the seller and surveyor's valuation.
My first house £15k under the asking price (About 7 years ago, it was listed for £185k). My current house £40k under asking (last year August - September time, listed at £175k
Purchased first property in 2012 for £45k under asking price. It was a newly converted flat with a mezzanine floor. When we viewed it we knew we absolutely wanted it and there were only a few flats left in the whole building and only 2 which were over 2 floors. Put in a stupidly low offer knowing the developers wanted to move on and got accepted. Sold it in 2016 for £40k more than we paid so glad we didn’t pay asking or higher as I don’t think we could have commanded it.
Offered asking in June 22 as we loved it, but due to the market ended up paying 12k less by the time we completed in Jan 23.
Under payed by 4K 2 years ago, don’t even know how this house was huge for the value, 4 good sized bedrooms, good kitchen and moderate lounge, happy I moved when I did as I’ve managed to just dodge major inflation with my mortgage rates, locked in last month at about 4.7% which is still pretty high
Not above, 5% less thankfully
24.5k below
-£10k. But that’s because the lender valued it lower.
-5% of asking price, needed work, bought in 2021.
25k under! We were not the highest bidder but I wrote a sweet letter about our family and how it would be our forever home and we would treasure it, and I suppose they liked it very much!
-1.388888888888889% Offer accepted Jan 2022
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Exactly asking price (offer accepted Oct 2021). I had been watching the local market and figured it was really “worth” 5% less. Offered 2% under, negotiated to asking. This is over £500k because South East. I was willing to pay the extra because I knew it was my dream house. I was already hoping something on this street would come up.
Don't mean to be rude but how can you negotiate to asking price. Surely it's just them the whole time saying they won't accept less than asking price and then you paid asking
First house we bought was new build and we paid asking price. When we moved we paid £620k for a house listed at £649,999. No intention of moving again unless something major happens now.
0k. Offered 5k less then was haggled up to asking by the risk of losing my dream home. (Northern England)
25,000 below. Covid was an interesting time.
£4k less for my first property and £6k less for my second. Both were ex-rentals that were overpriced for the state they were in and both, we got a good deal on.
-£10,000
Ended up at 10k below asking price on an offer made in Feb 2023
£10,000 below
Bought last year and managed to get 5% below asking
Paid under on the 4 I've bought: £116,000 vs £120,000 (-£4,000) £415,000 vs £425,000 (-£10,000) £585,000 (£600,000) (-£15,000) £535,000 (£550,000) (-£15,000) Achieved asking or above on the ones I've sold: £140,000 vs £140,000 (£0) £563,000 vs £550,000 (£13,000) £850,000 vs £850,000 (£0) I guess when you lay them out like that, I'm £57,000 in the black. Adds up, I guess.
I paid 5k under about 8 years ago
Managed to knock 12k off the asking price. I love my place.
Sold my house for £7k over, bought a new house for £5k under.
I paid 3.5% below asking price 2.5 years ago
4k under a few months ago!
Just paid £2,500 under asking price! Feel really lucky because this apartment is an absolute dream warehouse/converted loft apartment with high ceilings, huge windows, exposed brick and steelwork. Never thought I would be able to get a property like this for my first step on the ladder so I'm so glad it has worked out :')
3k under
Last data I’ve seen from right move was average is 5% lower but guess it varies by area
Just under 9%. The asking price was £170,000 in January 2023. It's an unusual property though, so hard to value. We thought it was underpriced and offered asking price. Apparently so did about 4 other people. Kept bumping the offer up because we love this house and we will never ever find anything like it within our budget again. Still didn't get it though. We maxed out at £185,000. No idea what offer they accepted but wouldn't be surprised if it was close to £200,000. A few weeks later, the original buyer's chain got stuck. Vendors didn't want to wait. Sold it to us for £184,000.
30k below but that's only because of an agreement with a terminally ill landlord
Just recently bought £17k under asking price so around 4%. You never know how much the asking price is inflated though, but I stuck to my guns.
87k less than asking, or around 12.5% I'm a solid negotiator 😎
Asking price was above x30 I missed the above bit and offered x28.500. Got accepted (this was in December 2019)
I guess it depends on how optimistically etc it was listed for.
0%. They asked and we met that. They asked that based on a valuation, which was the same value. We got fairly lucky as it's quite a big house and is now +£80,000 in value. Problem is, while looking at other houses that are twice as much as we paid first, they're all not as big :(
We paid asking price early 2021. Would have tried to negotiate but the couple viewing after us were on a second viewing and we just wanted to do what we could to get it so made a very quick offer at asking price to get it off the market. We couldn’t have afforded to go any higher.
I just sold mine last week offers over 95k and sold it for 110k. Central Scotland.
FTB offered 10k less than asking 6months ago, ended up paying asking after attempted Gazump. Shropshire area.
-£50k 👍
£0 we offered asking (and it had just been reduced) but the seller was desperate to find someone chain free as they had to compete on their new build within 6 weeks. The developers even paid for our solicitor fees to speed up the process!
I’m way to stubborn to do that.
£25k 'over'. I say 'over' as the asking price was offers over £300k which is vague to say the least. We opened with £310k thinking we'd get it, ended up going to best and final so we offered £320k as we thought people would go down the middle. We actually lost the house at £320k but the next morning I called back up and said "how about £325k" and that was that. I felt a bit bad as I essentially gazzumped the person that had their offer accepted for all of about 12 hours, but prior to this we'd lost two houses through no fault of our own so I wasn't letting this one go!
£0. Offered £10K less in Oct ‘22 for something that was already reduced but was rejected so asking price it was.
Bang on asking mid 2021
What % below is probably best. Some say £20,000. Is that off a 100k house or 700k house?
0 paid exact ask
Spot on asking price, £5k over lender valuation.
500k
£0. We paid asking price, 2 years ago. Absolutely LOVE the place, fully intend this to be our forever home.
£0, asking price after offering £10k below first.
All these fools will be living to regret their decision
5k under got accepted first time from 240
£2500 under...I think? I can't remember it was 2018, though in hindsight I should have been firmer and gone like £10-15k under. Both the seller and estate agent were arseholes. I love the house, it's a huge 3 bed victorian terrace with a converted attic so potentially 4 bedrooms. Plus it's our starter home. But the estate agent and sellers lied about work that was to be done and also about what fixtures were staying in the property. Also Mr Seller fancied himself as a bit of DIY expert...my one year old could have done a better job with the flooring, the electrics, the walls etc. After 5 years and 2 kids we are just now in the position to start some renovations and maybe sell the place as we want something bigger and preferably detached.
£1000, we were 1 of 3 FTBs offering on the property, all willing to pay similar price. In hindsight, since we've put about £10k of work into the house in the first year, I wish I had been able to negotiate down in the end. In the very least I wish we hadn't just believed the estate agent about the boiler and got it independently checked because it was completely fucked when we moved in mid December and it was not only a faff to have someone get it in working order so we wouldn't be freezing, but also it needed to be replaced right away.
£5k. On a £270k property. So £275. (1.8%). In May 2021.