Cheekiest offers on houses

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We're in London. House prices are clearly still astronomical but have fallen and the market definitely seems stuck.

We've seen a house that needs work. I don't think it's anything too major, but there's been some structural issues that have now been sorted (insurance certificates etc). Plus it's VERY dated, suspect electrics may need redoing.

What do you think the lowest possible offer we could make, as a percentage of the estate agents valuation, would be without causing offence (given the work needed and current state of the market)?

We have friends who’ve moved twice in the last three years. Both times they’ve offered 10% off asked my price and both times they’ve been accepted.

I’d feel it would be a bit cheeky to offer this but they have got away with it both times and good luck to them!

They’re accountants

We were very cheeky when we bought ours. It had been on the market for about 6 months and needed A LOT of work. We offered 35% below asking price. Eventually got it for 20% below asking price.

That was 6 years ago.

We bought at £525k once when asking price was £595k. Our initial offer was £500k

Yeah I'd go 10% under. We offered that in London (630k on 700k asking price), end of last summer, it was accepted, and then we knocked another 40k off after the survey so got it for 16% under. It was a wreck and needed loads of work, so was overpriced to start with, and then survey found more issues. Still delighted we bought it!

As long as you have sound rationale for making a particular offer, I don’t think it needs to be classed as cheeky. The housing market is driven by values determined by buyers, so a home is only worth what someone will (and can) pay for it.

At the start of viewings, I’m already thinking 10% off. There’s a lot of old stock (since last May/June) and it is only now I’m seeing the asking prices come down. Good luck OP!

God, I always thought 10% under is just assumed, so start a bit lower to allow for negotiation!
Worked for me, twice. Once ended up with agreeing 8% under, the other time was v keenly priced in the first place so only got about 4% off. Both in London, in the last 5 years and in the last 8 months.

5 years ago we bought a 3 bed terrace in need of updating and got 10% off. We offered 1k less and only increased our offer by 1k but that was enough!
We sold recently, fully refurbished, and accepted 5% off.
We are now offering on another house in need of renovation. We started offering at 12% lower but there was another party interested. Our final offer is 7% under asking.

All such good information, thanks so much. Going to offer on it this week. Fingers crossed.