"Cash buyer status has always carried an immense amount of weight within the UK property market as it allows sellers to dramatically reduce the time associated with selling a home"
- Ed Phillips - Lomond
The latest research by Lomond has revealed that whilst the lending landscape has steadied as a result of greater mortgage market certainty, some sellers are still offering discounts as high as £86,000 in order to secure a cash buyer.
Lomond analysed current property market stock looking at the proportion of listings advertised as wanting a cash buyer only, as well as looking at the difference between the asking price of these properties versus the wider average house price in each region.
On average, the asking price of these properties comes in at £257,513, a discount of 17% or £52,059, compared to the wider sold price across England.
However, the discounts being afforded to cash buyers are far higher in some regions of the nation.
Nowhere more so than in Yorkshire and the Humber, where the average asking price for a ‘cash buyer only’ property comes in 25% below the wider regional average value of a property - equating to a discount of £54,043.
In the South East, the average asking price offered to cash buyers is some 22% below the wider regional average sold price. However, this discount equates to a huge £85,979 in pounds and pence, the largest cash discount afforded to cash buyers across all regions of England.
The South East is also home to 23% of all listings stipulating a ‘cash only buyer’, with just the East Midlands home to a higher proportion at 29%.
Cash buyers in the West Midlands can secure the third largest discount at 20% or £51,961.
London is home to the smallest discount offered to cash buyers, with the average asking price of a ‘cash buyer only’ home coming in 8% below the regional average. But with the high cost of homeownership in the capital, this still equates to a price cut of £41,967.
Lomond CEO, Ed Phillips, commented: “Cash buyer status has always carried an immense amount of weight within the UK property market as it allows sellers to dramatically reduce the time associated with selling a home.
"So whilst we’ve now seen a far greater degree of stability return to the property market following the initial hold and subsequent reductions to the base rate, it’s clear that some sellers are still more than happy to offer significant discounts in order to secure a cash buyer.”
