Yopa first estate agency to launch daft Halloween ‘research’

Halloween was traditionally a celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.

But for estate agents throughout the UK it’s also another opportunity to light up property sales.

NEFARIOUS

Indeed, as The Neg reported last year some agencies, like Greater London Properties, have always gone one step further through various nefarious promotions (ED– we’re yet to hear what, if any, this year’s video will be about).

But that’s not stopped Yopa and the agency’s Chief Executive Verona Frankish (main picture) getting into the spirit to suggest somewhat daftly that a 10% asking price reduction could be a compromise if you find yourself selling a haunted property.

Her latest research found that selling a haunted house this Halloween could result in a frightful asking price reduction of 10%, which equates to a loss of almost £30,000 on the current average UK house price with just 25% of sellers prepared to admit to potential buyers that their house was haunted.

Yopa commissioned a survey of UK homebuyers and sellers to gauge their thoughts and feelings on a haunted house purchase as well as looking at the average price of property across eight famous haunted areas (see table below) and how they compare to the wider market.

Just a quarter of home sellers (25%) would admit to potential buyers that their house was haunted when looking to sell.

And what’s more, 44% of the homebuyers surveyed by Yopa said that they would avoid viewing a property if they knew it was haunted.

LOWER OFFER

And four out of 10 (42%) would be put off from submitting an offer even if they liked the property, while more than half (57%) said they would purposely put in a lower offer due to the fact that a property was supposedly haunted.

Nearly a third (32%) stated they would shave up to 10% off the asking price while just under half (46%) felt that offering up to 20% less was appropriate given the addition of ghosts or ghouls.

Frankish says: “The UK property market can be a scary place to be for sellers with buyer demand having dwindled this year and house prices cooling in recent months.

“The good news is that these reductions have been marginal and the market remains in great health despite the chill of the wider economic picture.”

But in a word of caution, she adds: “Those looking to sell in a haunted location may find the task of finding a buyer and achieving a good price all that bit harder.

“Not only are a great deal of buyers deterred from even considering a ‘haunted house’ purchase but those who are brave enough would offer below asking price.”