London house buyers report growth in gazumping despite wider UK decline

Roughly two in every three London buyers has been ‘gazumped’ on a house purchase in the last year, according to a new poll which underlines the growing frustration within the capital’s housing market.

Gazumping, which is the process of agreeing to a person’s offer on a property and then selling the house to another buyer for a better offer, affected 66 per cent of the capital’s home buyers in 2018, rising from 35 per cent in the previous year.

Yet the new survey, released today by hybrid estate agent Emoov, found the number of buyers getting gazumped on a property purchase across the UK more widely has fallen from 36 per cent to 25 per cent in the last year, despite a rise in London.

“Although market conditions remain tough, the good news at least, is that gazumping has declined as a result. While we are still seeing a steady number of sales each month despite stock levels also remaining low, there isn’t the overwhelming buyer appetite that we’ve seen in previous years,” according to Russell Quirk, founder and boss of Emoov.

Quirk added: “As a result, this reduction in competition is seeing fewer homeowners receive and opt for a last-minute higher offer, at the expense of their existing buyer. That said, the art of gazumping is still very prevalent across the capital where demand remains strong in numerous locations, despite the wider topline figures showing an overall slowdown.”

The research, which comprised more than 1,000 homeowners who have sold a house, also found that first-time buyers were the most likely out of any buyer type to feel that they had been gazumped, with 58 per cent of buyers aged between 25 and 34 reporting an instance of it in the last year.