01January

Where to find Britain’s biggest property discounts

Thousands of pounds have been slashed from the asking price of more than a third of all properties currently on the market, reports Zoopla.

Nearly £26,000 has been slashed from the asking price of more than a third of homes listed for sale on Zoopla, according to the property website's latest figures.

Sellers have lopped off an average £25,562 (8.65%) from their original asking prices – a 0.57% increase since July, when the average discount stood at £24,823.

Zoopla found that 35.33% of properties are now available at reduced prices, after the total number of discounted houses for sale on its website climbed by 1.25% over the four months to 30 November.

Some of Britain's deepest discounts can be found in Kingston-upon-Thames in the south, and across several towns in the north east including Stockon-on-Tees and Darlington.

Where are the biggest discounts in London?

If you've got the capital in your sights, take heart as 39.45% of London’s home listings have seen a mark-down in asking prices – up from 36.67% in July – resulting in an average £53,251 (7.39%) decrease.

Wealthy Kensington and Chelsea remains the most discounted London borough in property value terms, with sellers slashing an astonishing £129,559 (average 7.9%) off the listed price (see table below). This compares to an average £62,083 (6.47%) in Islington.

Homes for sale in east London’s Barking and Dagenham, whose famous residents include Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery and the ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’, Dame Vera Lynn, experienced the smallest price reductions in the capital, dropping by £19,413 (5.11%).

Merton, an outer borough in London’s south west which includes Wimbledon, has seen an average price discount of £43,799.

When analysing which boroughs in the capital have experienced the highest proportion of asking price reductions, Zoopla ranked Merton in first place, where a whopping 46.18% of homes for sale have been marked down.

By comparison, Hammersmith and Fulham have seen average price reduction of £75,029, with 40.31% of listed properties dropping their asking prices.

Where else are there cut-price properties?

Zoopla’s number-crunchers revealed that Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, offers the largest discounts, with properties marked down by £13,350 (8.37%) on average. Stockton is followed by neighbouring Darlington, at 7.88% (£12,285) and Bishop Auckland at £10,573 (7.86%).

The smallest asking price decreases were found in Hayes, Weston-super-Mare on Somerset’s coast and Fareham, which were marked down £18,639 (4.63%), £10,622 (4.65%) and £17,023 (4.71%) respectively.

Looking at the proportion of discounted homes in an area, towns in Scotland and northern England have continued to prove resilient to discounts, with just 15.73% of homes in Edinburgh having their listing prices decreased, followed by Salford (18.64%) Glasgow (21.62%) and Manchester (24.66%).

Zoopla analysed 196 British towns and 33 London boroughs to find the average discounted price of listings in each location, and to reveal the proportion of listings which have had their asking prices reduced.

Lawrence Hall, spokesperson for Zoopla, said the 1.25% rise in the number of reduced properties on the market, combined with the small increase in the average discount applied was, “good news for first time buyers trying to get on the property ladder”.

He also noted that the rising levels of discounting were, “to be expected at this time of the year when house-hunters are likely to be delaying their property search until activity picks up in January”.

Top 10 areas with the largest asking price reductions:

Rank	Town	Average price reduction (%)	Average price reduction (£)	Reduced properties on the market (%)
1	Stockton-on-Tees	8.37%	£13,350	40.42%
2	Darlington	7.88%	£12,285	39.63%
3	Bishop Auckland	7.86%	£10,573	37.31%
4	Rotherham	7.81%	£10,506	35.14%
5	Kingston-upon-Thames	7.78%	£84,244	51.31%
6	Halifax	7.77%	£12,441	37.33%
7	St. Austell	7.77%	£18,938	31.87%
8	Middlesbrough	7.74%	£11,534	48.24%
9	Sunderland	7.56%	£10,061	42.59%
10	Hartlepool	7.53%	£10,530	37.28%

Top 10 areas with the highest proportion of asking price reductions:

Rank	Town	Reduced properties on the market (%)	Average price reduction (%)	Average price reduction (£)
1	Camberley	53.52%	6.72%	£30,382
2	Kingston-upon-Thames	51.31%	7.78%	£84,244
3	Richmond	50.52%	7.49%	£87,445
4	Watford	49.29%	5.66%	£29,668
5	Middlesbrough	48.24%	7.74%	£11,534
6	Mitcham	47.38%	7.13%	£43,441
7	Crawley	47.22%	5.23%	£20,998
8	Bracknell	46.80%	5.40%	£21,533
9	Uxbridge	46.51%	5.17%	£27,300
10	Prenton	45.89%	7.27%	£11,677

Top 10 London boroughs with the largest asking price reductions:

Rank	Borough	Average price reduction (%)	Average price reduction (£)	Reduced properties on the market (%)
1	Kensington and Chelsea	7.90%	£129,559	39.63%
2	Westminster	7.48%	£118,982	36.81%
3	Hammersmith and Fulham	7.24%	£75,029	40.31%
4	Richmond-upon-Thames	6.92%	£57,452	45.09%
5	Wandsworth	6.89%	£69,170	40.05%
6	Camden	6.85%	£81,279	39.60%
7	Lambeth	6.71%	£50,559	37.87%
8	Merton	6.66%	£43,799	46.18%
9	Hackney	6.49%	£52,852	36.71%
10	Islington	6.47%	£62,083	37.36%