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October 2026 Property Market Comment

14 Oct 2026

October 2026 Property Market Comment

The headline this October is buyers are out there, but it’s price that brings them to your door.

If you’re buying you have choice. According to Rightmove the number of homes for sale is at a 12-year high, and affordability is also moving in your favour. House prices have barely shifted this year, yet average earnings are up 4.5%. Lloyds Bank says the average home now costs 7.3 times earnings, the lowest since 2015.

Flats and houses are selling, but not all of them. Nationally, of those that left estate agents’ books last month, it might surprise you that only about 54% actually sold, with the remaining 46% being withdrawn unsold. The difference, in the vast majority of cases, will be that the asking price was simply not competitive enough to attract the right buyer. It was out of synch with the market.

Don’t forget, when buyers have choice, they are naturally more cautious and selective, not only about what they buy, but what they actually view as well.

And it’s the first few days and weeks that matter most. A property launched at the right price is seen by every active buyer, resulting in plenty of viewings. It will sell pretty readily. But if the price is too high, it will be seen by the wrong buyers with higher expectations, and ignored.

A quarter of properties newly listed last month had previously been on the market in the past year, and 60% of those came back at a lower price, probably around 7% lower than the price they could have achieved, had they been correctly priced at the outset.

And they’d sell much faster too, so those sellers can get on with their lives. A competitively priced property should go under offer within the first three to four weeks of marketing. And if it hasn’t, then the price must be reduced immediately, by at least 5%, so that it attracts buyers who hadn’t seen it initially.

Of course, there are local nuances, but if you’re buying or selling, there is still just enough time to get moving by Christmas or the New Year. Why not call us ,and let’s work together to make that happen.