Property sellers in London now struggle most with value falls
New figures from Hamptons show that the Capital has taken over from the North East as the area where vendors are most likely to achieve less than they paid.
Property sellers in London are now having the most difficulty getting back what they paid, new Hamptons data reveals.
Last year, 14.8% of Londoners sold their home for less than the purchase price , the highest proportion in England and Wales.
This is at a time when the national average is 8.7%, and traditionally the North East was the worst performing region.
Most likely
In nine of the last 10 years, sellers in the North East were more likely to make a loss than anywhere else.
As recently as 2019, nearly 30% of North East vendors sold for less than they paid compared with 9.2% in London.
But now the North as a whole is performing better than the South, with stronger price growth, according to Hamptons analysis of Land Registry data.
Flat sellers
This trend has been driven largely by flat sellers who, despite accounting for 60% of London sales last year, represented 90% of homes sold at a loss, up from 78.4% in 2019.
And flat vendors were four times more likely to make a loss than house sellers in England and Wales.
In London, upward house price growth is no longer the one-way bet it once seemed.”
Aneisha Beveridge, Head of Research at Hamptons, says: “In London, upward house price growth is no longer the one-way bet it once seemed.
“In some cases, even owners who bought a decade ago still face getting back less than they paid – something that would have been almost unthinkable in the heady days of 2015. And for many, the sums are likely to remain tight.”
And she says that for the North and Midlands: “it’s possible that seller gains there could outpace those in the South – in both cash and percentage terms – for the foreseeable future.”
