The worst symptoms of an overheating property market — gazumping and sealed bids — are rapidly spreading to London’s outer suburbs.
Fast-rising prices and a shortage of properties for sale are squeezing buyers ever-further towards the far-flung fringes in search of affordable homes, according to agents. The trend has increased competition in areas once regarded as remote with as many as one in five sales now involving a bidding war or going to sealed bids.
Ed Mead, director of Douglas & Gordon, said: “Those who used to look in awe at property goings on in central London are now experiencing it themselves.”
Frustrated house hunter Catherine Wood, who is looking in the Crystal Palace area, said: “Prices have gone through the roof this year. It’s all open days, sealed bids and offers way over asking price. Young families like ours, who want to up-size from a flat to a family home, are on the verge of being totally priced out of the area.”
A property that was put on the market in February for £425,000 was relisted in October after the sale fell through for £485,000 and went under offer immediately. Ms Wood added: “So competitive is the market, that in cases meeting the asking price is only the first step in the process.
"We missed out on two properties after offering over £25,000 more than asking and in spite of not being in a chain.” Dana Stevens, 33, and her partner Patrick Harmer, 34, were forced into a gazumping “duel” when they wanted to move to a bigger home after the birth of their son earlier this year.
They sold their one-bed flat in Hackney in April but found they couldn’t afford to buy in that area. They were priced out of Leytonstone and set their hearts on a three-bedroom house in Woodford Green.
They were so determined to get it that they offered barely an hour after their first viewing. The vendor accepted their offer of £335,000 — already £5,000 over the asking price.
But three days later they were told the vendor had accepted another offer that was £6,000 higher. They asked their mortgage lender for another £4,000, reaching their limit. Their improved offer, now £10,000 over the asking price, was accepted over that of the gazumper as they were chain free.
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Ms Stevens said: “I would never normally gazump someone else, but in this case the only solution was to fight back — and gazump the gazumper.”
Online estate agents Urban Sales and Lettings who handled the sale say they have seen a big jump in gazumping as the London market hots up.
Their figures show that in the past three months, 20 per cent of properties going under offer were either gazumped or went to sealed bids. During the same period last year, this happened in just 3 per cent of sales.
