HOMEOWNERS across the CO postcode areas dropped asking prices by more than £11,000 to try and secure a sale, new figures have revealed.

House buying firm Property Solvers found sellers took on average £11,272 off the asking price in the last 12 months.

This increased to £38,195 for people trying to sell homes in the CO9 area of Halstead and surrounding villages.

Those selling homes in the CO2 area had to drop the initial pricetag by the least with 51 sales seeing on average £5,547 knocked off the asking price.

Property Solvers tracked 715 property transactions between June 2018 and June 2019 to collate the figures from initial listing to the completion of sale.

Ruban Selvanayagam said: “While it’s logical to expect a bit of ‘wiggle room’, its increasingly evident that something is amiss in the marketplace and properties are getting overpriced at the marketing stage.

“Some estate agents provide an over-hyped valuation to win the instruction and, in many cases, this leads to homes lingering on the market much longer than they need to.”

So what can homeowners do?

He said: “We always suggest looking at widely available online data from HM Land Registry which tracks the prices properties are sold for and not what they are marketed for.

"On Rightmove, for example, you can often see previous listings to see how yours compares.”

Average difference between asking and sold price

CO1: -£6,691

CO2: -£5,547

CO3: -£11,962

CO4: -£7,842

CO5: -£9,250

CO6: -£11,942

CO7: -£10,675

CO8: -£8,999

CO9: -£38,195

CO10: -£8,780

CO11: -£17,055

CO12: -£7,233

CO13: -£10,189

CO14: -£7,936

CO15: -£8,100

CO16: -£9,953

To find out more details for your area visit

www.propertysolvers.co.uk/local-house-market-insights/