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One in three Britons has taken home off the market

Survey of 1800 homeowners reveals poor and uncertain market conditions have prompted vendors to take their home off the market and renovate instead.

Richard Reed

Almost one three Britons has taken their home off the market in the past five years, according to a new study.

Reasons for taking down the For Sale sign included poor market conditions, lack of funds and deciding to renovate instead.

For those that did sell, the average sale time on the market varied between six months and two weeks – while 16% are still going through the conveyancing process.

The figures were revealed in a survey by window-furnishings company Thomas Sanderson, who polled more than 1,800 UK homeowners.

All respondents revealed they had put their house up for sale in the past five years.

Successful transactions

Of the Britons who had put their house up for sale, just over half (56%) had successfully gone through with the transaction,

The remaining 28%, however, had taken their house off the market in the past five years.

When asked why they had put their house up for sale, the most common answers were ‘To move to a different area’ (23%), ‘Because I could no longer afford the property’ (18%) and ‘To upsize’ (15%).

Just over two-thirds of those who had removed their house from sale (68%) said they had done so in the past two years. When asked why, the most common reasons were:

  • Could not/did not want to sell the house in the current market – 19%;
  • Decided to renovate instead – 17%;
  • Could no longer afford to upsize – 16%;
  • They no longer wanted to move – 14%;
  • Could not afford the fees – 12%.

Plans to relist

Asked if they thought they would put their house back on the market, just under a quarter (23%) said they thought they would do so in the next two years, with a further 26% saying they would in the next five years.

Nearly a third (31%) said they didn’t think they would ever re-list their property.

Just one in nine (11%) said they regretted the decision to take their house off the market, while 53% were certain they had made the right choice, while the remainder were unsure.

The average amount spent putting their house up for sale before removing it from the market was roughly £1,200.

Commenting on the findings of the study Richard Petrie, Marketing Director at www.thomas-sanderson.co.uk, said: “It has become increasingly popular to renovate your home rather than buy new in the current market, so it makes sense that people are choosing this option after initially deciding to sell.

“It’s annoying that you still have to pay for various fees when putting your house on the market, but you may end up saving money in the long term if you are not in the right position to sell your home.”

 

March 17, 2020

One comment

  1. Pre-covid 19, which was the 2019 market, here are the scores on the doors regarding moving not moving exchange rates etc, taken on a national basis as a snapshot at the end of December 2019. Last year; –

    1,653,474 residential properties were listed.

    936,461 exchanged, some sold sstc in 2018 and 2019.

    233,575 sales fell through having been sstc, some sold stc in 2018 and 2019.

    799,995 properties were withdrawn, some of these were listed in 2018 and 2019.

    The national exchange rate was 53.93%.

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