The return of property price haggling

Buyers are increasingly offering less than the asking house price for properties and are engaging in price haggling due it to currently being a buyers'' market, according to one property expert.

Since the Bank of England raised the interest rate homebuyers have become notably more savvy with a fifth saying that they offer a price below the asking price.

This is comes at the same time as a 20-month highs in consumer confidence that house prices will continue to rise and so home buyers are looking for properties that they can buy cheaply while the market slows down.

Paul Holmes, from first-time buyer specialist Firstrung, said: "The buyers'' market began to return once rates reached five per cent in November, in our opinion this will be with hindsight looked upon as the tipping point for house prices."

A buyers'' market is good for affordability because prices stop rising and first-time buyers are looking to add value to properties by buying low and haggling over prices.


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