Home sellers in Britain cut asking prices on more than 3,000 properties a day on average in September, the highest total for that month in 15 years, according to figures from the property website Rightmove.

The website said the number of reductions – an average of 3,110 a day – was driven partly by a glut of homes for sale and by some sellers setting unrealistic expectations. The figure was last higher in September 2011, when it reached 3,207, and has risen every year since a low of 1,066 in September 2021.

The average price reduction was nearly 7%, the equivalent of almost £21,000 off a typically valued home. About 34% of listed homes had a price cut, only slightly below the recent peak of 36% in September 2023.

Cuts mean longer waits

Rightmove’s data showed that homes which needed a price reduction typically took 119 days to find a buyer, compared with 39 days for those that sold at their original asking price.

Colleen Babcock of Rightmove said: “Once a home has been on the market for a while and then has a price reduction, some buyers start asking questions, even when there is nothing wrong with the property. In a market with so much choice, first impressions matter.”

Tarah Lourens, the website’s chief operating officer, said emotional factors often influenced how sellers priced their homes because they “put a value on the time and money they have invested”. Buyers, she said, simply considered everything they could buy within their budget.

Buyers in the driving seat

Rival portal Zoopla said buyers were being more cautious and selective. The number of homes for sale in September was 5% higher than a year earlier, but the number of sales agreed had fallen by 9%.

A quarter of newly listed homes in September had previously been on the market within the past year, and six in 10 of those returned at a lower asking price. Homes that needed a price cut were half as likely to sell within the normal three-month timeframe, said Richard Donnell, Zoopla’s executive director of research.

Mortgage costs are a key factor. According to Moneyfacts, the average two-year fixed rate stood at 5.96% and the average five-year fix at 5.99% on 16 October – three-year highs, after rates rose again following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

September is also traditionally the busiest month for price cuts, as sellers try to complete a sale before the end of the year.

Sellers’ stories

One seller, Stewart from Leicester, said he had turned down a below-asking offer a day after listing a property and held out for better offers that never came. He eventually sold after 18 months for £30,000 less than the original price. Both properties he had sold included an element of leasehold, which more buyers have been avoiding in England.

Another, selling his late father’s home in south Wales, told the BBC: “The market is dead. Lots for sale; no-one buying.”

Estate agents stress the importance of getting the first price right. Craig Webster, of Tiger Sales and Lettings in Blackpool, said the first weeks on the market were “when you have the greatest opportunity to capture the attention of active buyers”. Katie Griffin, of surveyors Sawdye and Harris in Devon, warned that having to correct a price could lead a seller to accept less than even the revised figure.

Andrew Boast, chief executive of SAM Conveyancing, said sellers might still not lose out overall if they had bought well and seen their home rise in value while they owned it.

Why Scotland is different

Zoopla’s figures show Scotland is the outlier. Some 74% of Scottish homes listed between April and June found a buyer within three months, compared with 53% in the north-east of England, 50% in the north-west and just 30% in London.

Donnell said Scotland’s Home Report system, which requires an independent valuation before a property goes on the market, gives sellers a firm guide to pricing and helps homes sell faster than anywhere else in Britain.

In southern England, he said, higher prices, stamp duty and the fact that some owners – including landlords – do not need to sell meant listed homes were less likely to find a buyer. For anyone selling this autumn, the message from the portals is the same: price realistically from day one.