Buyers haven’t disappeared but their budgets and behaviours have changed

Buyers are still buying, but higher borrowing costs are changing what they can afford and who is buying.

Understanding today’s market and knowing what to expect next is essential reading for any landlord planning to downsize or sell up anytime soon.

A property producing a good rent, occupied by trusted tenants, can still feel like the safest place to keep your money but waiting for tenants to leave could have serious consequences when empty property is becoming more expensive to run and the type of buyer most likely to buy your property is changing.

Leaving your plans too late can affect the costs you pay waiting to find a buyer and while your sale completes, as well as the price your property will achieve.

Buyers are still there, but the mix is changing

First-time buyers and cash buyers are becoming more important in the market as fewer mortgage borrowers are upgrading their homes and investors using buy-to-let mortgages have almost halved.

More expensive properties are already more difficult to sell as the cost of borrowing affects what buyers can afford to pay/lend but now even property sales at the cheaper end of the market are starting to be affected with first-time buyer mortgage applications down 3.5% on a year earlier.

If, as predicted, the Bank of England raises the base interest rate again in 2026 and 2027, even the properties that are currently affordable will become unaffordable and house prices at the lower end of the market will also have to fall to attract buyers.

For the same reason that retiring landlords feel safer holding on while they have trusted tenants, incoming landlords may see an established tenancy with a proven payment history as less of a risk than starting from scratch with unknown tenants.

That doesn’t mean they are going to pay more for a tenanted sale – affordability remains the most important factor – but it gives investors another reason to choose one house over another.

The message is clear, borrowing costs and other pressures have made non-essential buying less attractive and more risky. The knock-on effect is house prices are likely to fall as sellers have to compete more to attract a buyer from a smaller pool with more choice.

With property prices more likely to fall than grow in the next three years, landlords approaching retirement or planning to reduce their responsibilities any time soon: now could be the best time to sell for the foreseeable future.

For landlords who are waiting for tenants to leave to sell properties at the lower end of the market: you may want to consider selling with tenants in place to get out now, before prices are affected at all levels.

You do not have to wait for your tenants to leave

Selling with tenants in situ allows landlords to continue receiving rent for longer.

We liaise directly with tenants directly to introduce ourselves, advise them of the proceedings, discuss their needs and provide incentives for them to cooperate with collecting photographs and conducting viewings.

Where possible, if landlords recommend their tenants, we do everything we can to avoid disrupting tenants – either helping them to secure specialist mortgages to buy their homes themselves or by selling to incoming landlords looking for properties and reliable tenants.

If our buyer wants vacant possession, we take full control of obtaining vacant possession so sellers don’t have to and do everything we can to help tenants overcome practical problems that are often at the root of a reluctance to move voluntarily.

We can even help landlords who do not recommend their tenants and landlords whose relationship with their tenants has broken down to get vacant possession faster and with less animosity and stress than waiting for courts and bailiffs to support their claims.

Sellers normally walk away with 85 – 90% of vacant possession value with no fees to pay and £720 towards their legal bills if they use an independent panel solicitor we recommend for their high-quality service and the priority they give our clients.

You won’t get a higher price for the service, and any company promising you more is hiding a huge list of costs that are going to come after the sale. That’s not the case with us – we’re proudly transparent about what we can and cannot achieve and how we do it.

We are a compromise between the highest price possible and a faster, more reliable sale.

We help sellers sell their properties more quickly than estate agents and for better prices than auctions or property buying companies.

In addition to the interest properties attract from Rightmove, Zoopla and local agents, we have a database of more than 30,000 registered buyers, looking for all sorts of properties including first time buyers, cash buyers and incoming landlords looking for properties with trusted tenants.

It doesn’t matter what type of tenancies you have – whatever your property is empty, a single let, a HMO, split into self-contained flats or even sublet – as long as it is a freehold house, we find the BEST price possible in the ‘sweet spot’ timeframe that is long enough and convenient enough to attract any buyer but short enough for sellers to start making plans.

We do not sell leasehold flats or remote properties which are better suited to longer marketing periods.

Finding a buyer is only the beginning

As well as collecting property details, we collect tenancy information and make sure the business, the sale and all processes are fully compliant.

If you have multiple properties, we can sell them individually or together as portfolio.

With buyers changing their minds accounting for more than a third of failed sales in Quick Move Now’s latest analysis, and failed sales costing sellers thousands in wasted solicitor fees, it is even more important to choose an estate agent you can trust to ensure agreed sales complete.

Whereas most estate agents take a step back once they have found a buyer, we step forward to the front and centre of all that follows.  

A sale needs more than introductions and updates; it needs a team who makes it their business to steer and drive it across the finish line.

Just some of the things we do as standard:

• Secure buyer commitment: a non-refundable deposit gives buyers a financial reason to follow through.
• Ensure time for solutions: our buyer agreements provide a framework for resolving problems, subject to the agreed terms.
• Bring in the right people: builders, surveyors, councils, solicitors and other specialists, as required.
• Keep work moving together: progress tasks alongside one another wherever possible.
• Follow every outstanding action: oversee communications so important questions and responsibilities do not slip through the gaps.

Complete the form and tell us about your property, tenancy and preferred timescale.

Make it your priority today, and we’ll make it ours to secure today’s prices so you can plan for best tomorrow.