This weeks News in Property
57 Days or 175 Days? Why Your First Asking Price Matters
If your home is going onto the market, the original asking price is not something to test for a few weeks and sort out later.
New research from Savills gives us a fairly brutal reminder why.
Looking at successful sales above £1 million over the past two years, Savills found:
Homes that sold without an asking price reduction took an average of 57 days to find a buyer.
Homes that were reduced at least once took an average of 175 days. That is more than three times as long.
Savills also found that 30% of successful £1 million plus sales needed at least one reduction. Among London flats, that figure rose to 38%.
What the research does not prove
Let’s be clear. This does not mean reducing the price caused the delay.
An unusual home, an overambitious launch price or weaker presentation could all make a property harder to sell in the first place. The research also excludes properties that were withdrawn without finding a buyer.
So, I would never claim that every reduction adds 118 days to a sale.
What it does show is a very strong connection between needing to reduce and experiencing a much longer marketing period.
The first few weeks are not a rehearsal
I call this early launch period the Momentum Window™.
This is when your property is new, buyers are curious and nobody is yet asking the awkward question:
“Why hasn’t somebody bought it?”
Once a home has been sitting on the market for weeks, buyer psychology changes.
A price reduction can improve its position, but it cannot completely make the listing feel new again. Buyers who dismissed it at launch may not automatically reconsider it simply because the price has changed.
Time on the market does not just record what has happened. It can change how buyers interpret the property.
Why this matters in Beckenham and Bromley
The Savills figures cover successful £1 million plus sales nationally. They are not specific to Bromley, so I would not present them as local proof.
But the principle is particularly relevant to the family house market across Beckenham, Park Langley and Bromley.
Buyers at this level have choices. They compare condition, road, plot, school access, floor area, presentation and price. If one home feels weaker value than the alternatives, they move on.
The current market makes this even more important. New instructions are increasing while buyer sentiment remains subdued. Two separate indices also recorded annual London price falls of just over 2%.
In plain English, sellers have more competition and buyers can afford to be choosy.
What should happen before launch?
Before a property reaches Rightmove, I want three questions answered:
- What else will buyers see in the same search?
- Does the presentation justify the proposed price?
- What evidence will tell us quickly if the strategy is working?
The photography, story, launch price, search brackets and agent strategy should work together from day one.
If they do not, the property can use up its strongest period of attention before the real problem has even been identified.
The better question- If your home is already on the market and activity has gone quiet, do not begin with:
“How much should we reduce it by?”
Begin with:
“Why did buyers choose other properties instead?”
After 18 years in property, I have learned that good homes rarely struggle for one simple reason. The answer usually sits somewhere between pricing, presentation, competition, positioning and buyer psychology.
Every unsold property leaves clues. My job is to find them.
Clarity. Not optimism. Not guesswork. Just evidence.
James Hall
The Property Perfectionist™
Independent Property Consultant | 07855 828 736
Source: Savills, Prime UK Residential, published 8 October 2026
https://www.savills.co.uk/research_articles/229130/394992-0/prime-uk-residential—autumn-winter-2026
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