Agents need to work together to combat rise in gazundering
With house prices falling and buyers holding all the cards, gazundering has once again become rampant in some parts of the country.
More buyers are dropping offers before completion wreaking havoc amongst sellers and putting hundreds of chains at risk of collapsing.
With house prices falling and buyers holding all the cards, gazundering has once again become rampant in some parts of the country.
AFFORDABILITY FACTOR
Sophie Pollard, Director of MyHaus Brighton estate agents, says one of the main factors in chains falling apart is affordability and ever-changing mortgage rates and products.

She told Newspage: “Where offers have been made based on mortgage-in-principles, once it comes to crunch time they are no longer feasible or available.
“There is also an element of estate agents not working together to come to beneficial outcomes for their clients and each other.
“The market is different so we need to update our approach. I think if competition and ego can be put aside for a second, more of these chains won’t fall through and negotiations can be made on either side to get the desired outcome.”
GAZUNDERING ON THE UP
Kundan Bhaduri, Property Developer and Portfolio Landlord at London-based The Kushman Group, adds: “Gazundering is on the up as are failed surveys due to down valuations. Archaic conveyancing taking forever doesn’t help with the complexity involved in long chains, either.”

Bhaduri says that the fragile links in property purchase transactions are increasingly snapping under the weight of all these factors.
And he adds: “If I had to pick one reason, it is public confidence in the market that is driving this state of the market, and often negative stories in the media play a big part.
“Separately, sellers are also abruptly withdrawing their properties thinking they might get more for it later, particularly if they are not hard-pressed for the cash at the moment.
“On the other hand, buyers, amid a labyrinth of options, are also discovering alternative cheaper homes they might fall in love with, or a better deal elsewhere, while some are simply getting cold feet.”
CRIPPLING CHAINS
Lewis Shaw, Founder of Mansfield-based Shaw Financial Services, says: “Gazundering is proving increasingly common at the moment.
“At the eleventh hour, buyers are trying to pull a fast one and that’s crippling chains. On the whole, chains are taking too long, all parties are getting hacked off and some are calling it a day.”
Securing the commitment of both buyer and seller protects the price agreed and penalises gazundering unless directly linked to unknown urgent repairs (cat 3 ) on a building survey. Of course using Gazeal
Preparing legally for a sale also helps reduce time to exchange, eg using data rooms. Just asking the buyers to pay for their searches at the point of sale reduced exchange times by a 1/3rd. Such a simple step.