Sheffield property: City property market is best performing in the country for sellers

Figures show that the average home seller achieved 97.9 per cent of the asking price last year, with just one area of the market seeing buyers pay above and beyond the original listing price.

Last year, home sellers in Sheffield achieved 101.4 per cent of the asking price, making it the best performing area of the property market from a sellers point of view.

Reasons for this include a lack of stock in the city, making competition for houses fierce, and also the sealed bids system which experts say often leads to buyers bidding at least the asking price.

The data comes from estate agent comparison site GetAgent.co.uk and shows no less than 26 other areas failed to achieve full asking price by a fraction, with buyers paying between 99.1 per cent and 99.9 per cent.

Figures show that across England, sellers achieved an average of 97.9 per cent of their asking price expectations in 2021.

The best asking price performance was seen in the South West, North West, East of England and Yorkshire and the Humber, where sellers netted 98.2 per cent of their original listing price.

London was home to the lowest percentage of asking price achieved at 95.9 per cent.

Founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, Colby Short, commented: “It’s very much a sellers market at present, as buyers continue to enter the market at mass and fight it out for limited levels of available stock.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re prepared to pay above the odds to secure a home and just one area of the market has seen the average seller achieve above asking price in 2021.

“However, what we’ve certainly seen is the traditional practice of negotiating the price down all but vanish, as buyers pay very close to the original asking price right off the bat in order to secure a purchase.

“With interest rates climbing along with the cost of living, we could see this start to subside in 2022 as buyers can’t quite pack the same financial punch and this will inevitably lead to a reduction in the level of asking price achieved.”

GetAgent pulls data from all of the major property listing portals which are then cross-referenced with the Land Registry using their proprietary algorithms and input from partner agents to see where sellers have achieved the best price for their property compared to the price they listed it for sale at.

In Waltham Forest and Gravesham sellers achieved 99.9 per cent, while this fell slightly to 99.8 per cent in Liverpool and Stevenage. In Redditch, 99.7 per cent of asking price was achieved on average, with sellers in Tameside, North East Derbyshire and Nottingham securing 99.5 per cent.

The worst performing area of the market was the City of London, where buyers stumped up just 89 per cent of the asking price, the only area to fall below the 90 per cent threshold.

London accounted for the majority of other areas to have seen the worst asking price performance in 2021, with Hambleton, Runnymede 95.5 per cent and Copeland the only areas outside of London to make the top 10.