The True Cost Of Overvaluing Your Wigan Property

Many Wigan homeowners are bringing forward their plans to move and take advantage of this tax cut. Yet how do you ensure you sell and buy your Wigan property whilst the tax cut applies (a saving of up to £15,000 of stamp duty on your next Wigan home?).

Interestingly whilst plenty of Wigan homeowners have jumped onto the

stamp duty holiday bandwagon since the announcement, even more property has sold since lockdown has ended, meaning there are 12% less properties on the market for sale in Wigan than there were during lockdown.

The number of properties for sale in Wigan can split down into type…

• Detached Wigan homes down 31%

• Semi-detached Wigan homes up 7%

• Terraced / town houses Wigan homes down 18%

• Apartments in Wigan down 5%

The first important factor to consider is the time issue.

It currently takes on average 17 to 19 weeks between accepting an offer and completion of the sale.

That means your agent needs to find a buyer before the end of November or early December to enable you to complete the sale by the 31st March 2021.

There are 1,190 properties on the market in Wigan,

of which 725 have sales agreed on them

The second important consideration is your asking price.

Choosing a realistic Asking Price can save you time and money, and ultimately securing your next home.

A Which report in 2017 stated that many estate agents routinely overvalue properties to initially gain the instruction, but the property took much longer than average to sell and the sale price achieved was lower than similar properties that were realistically priced from day one.

The report compared the original asking price with final selling prices for 370,000 properties to ascertain how many estate agents had reduced the initial asking price of properties in order to sell them.

Which found that 70,300 (19%) of all 370,000 properties sold had to be reduced by at least 5% in order to get the property sold, whilst the other 81% (299,700) had no or very minimal reductions to get them sold.

Of the 81% of sold properties that weren’t reduced or reduced by less than 5%, the average initial asking price was £261,000, yet they eventually sold for an average sale price of £260,000.

For the 19% of homes whose asking prices were reduced by over 5%, the average asking price was £266,000, but their eventual sale price was only £241,000, a loss of £20,000 each.

Also, they took an average of nine weeks longer to sell compared to the properties that were not reduced, which now could also cost you the Stamp Duty saving, and lose you the property you want to buy.

So far this year there have been 1059 price reductions and 2902 new instructions in Wigan, despite most sellers inviting 3 agents to advise them on the sale of their property.

That means approximately one third of the Wigan Property Market this year has reduced their initial asking price.

If you are selling make sure your asking price is realistic. If your agent offers the highest asking price, ask them to justify and prove their valuation with comparable sales.

Remember, the consequences of an asking price that isn’t realistic are...

1. You will spend much longer on the market ( on average 9 weeks longer )

2. You will sell your property for less than a similar property that has been realistically priced ( on average as much as £20,000 less )

3. You will miss out on the Stamp Duty Holiday ( up to £15,000 )

4. You are likely to lose the property you want to a buyer who has sold

Thank you for reading and please contact us anytime if you require any help or advice on buying or selling property in the Wigan area

01942 233999

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