The GetAgent Sellers Report 2024

Welcome to the second edition of the annual GetAgent Seller’s Report, where we’ve taken an extensive deep dive into our data to reveal what the seller’s market is really like in 2024. Since 2015, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of home sellers successfully sell their properties, and so as we enter a new year, we’ve built on our very first Sellers Report 2023 to reveal how the UK’s property landscape is changing year on year…

For the second year running, we’ve analysed our 2023 listings to uncover invaluable insights for those looking to sell a property this year - from the best time to put your house on the market to the areas around the UK achieving the best sale prices.

Summary

Our Seller’s Report was first produced to build an understanding of the property market and track market trends that will affect those looking to sell their house this year.

From an extensive deep dive into our own internal listings data, we’ve found that March, May and June remain the most popular months to put your house on the market, with thousands of sellers continuing to list their properties in the spring and summer months. Postcodes in Surrey and South Buckinghamshire emerged as the areas with the highest selling prices in 2023, while Scottish towns dominated the list of UK areas with the cheapest average selling prices. Read on to discover our key findings from this year’s report.

Key findings:

• March, May and June are the most popular months for listing a property as for sale; December is the least popular month.
• Areas including Surrey, Argyllshire and the New Forest have emerged as the most expensive UK postcodes outside of London.
• Glasgow, Middlesbrough and Sheffield are amongst some of the least expensive UK postcodes in 2023, according to average selling prices in the areas.
• The City of Westminster is the borough which dominates the most expensive London postcodes, with properties in the area fetching up to £8 million on average.
• Birmingham’s B2 postcode is the area where you can achieve the highest above asking price, fetching 113% of the original asking price on average.
• Welsh regions including Carmarthenshire, Anglesey and Ceredigion fetched between 85% and 88% less than the asking price, on average, in 2023
• Scottish cities dominate the top twenty quickest-selling postcodes, with homes in East Lothian taking on average just 27 days to sell.

What is the most popular month to put your house on the market?

One of the top items on any house mover’s to-do list will be to consider when they’re going to officially list their property for sale. While some homeowners will be moving as a matter of urgency, others will have the luxury of time on their side, allowing them to use market trends to their advantage. With the market following similar trends each year, we wanted to dive into our internal listings data once again to find out if the most popular months for listing properties have changed at all over the last 12 months.

Following a similar trend to 2022, the spring and summer months proved most favoured for those putting their homes on the market - with March, May and June ranking as the three most popular months of the year to list a property in.

It’s perhaps no surprise that the same three months ranked as the most popular time of year to list a property for two years in a row, with the period bringing nicer weather and generally fewer social plans than in the lead-up to Christmas, for example. These factors combined make for an appealing time of year for people to move, with the summer months of July and August following to complete the top five most popular months to list a property in.

At the bottom of our rankings is November and December, which rank as the least popular months to list a property in, with just under 89,000 properties being listed in December 2023, compared with March, which saw over 184,000 listed.

*GetAgent listings data from Jan ‘23 - Dec ‘23

Our data reveals that the average time to sell a house is within 40-50 days of offer acceptance, although 90 days is a much more realistic estimation for most homeowners. With this in mind, the latest date homeowners should consider putting their property on the market in order to have it sold by Christmas is the end of September - the sixth most popular month for listings.

However, with each house-selling process being massively unpredictable and to allow for minor delays along the way, we recommend listing by the 26th of July in order to have completed a sale by the 23rd of December.

Colby Short, our co-founder and CEO comments: “It’s really difficult to predict how long it might take to sell a property because there are so many individual variables and factors involved in each house sale - from the location where you’re trying to sell to the skill and experience of your estate agent. Naturally, the market and wider economic climate affect how quickly a house will sell too.

“For those wanting to complete a sale by Christmas, it’s recommended to think about getting your property listed by the end of summer to ensure you’ve allowed for the necessary time to go through the lengthy process of selling your property.”

Where in the UK has the most expensive houses for sale?

Once you’ve decided when you’re going to be listing your property as for sale, it’s time to start thinking about an asking price for your home. The market price will depend on many factors, ranging from the number of bedrooms your property has to how desirable the area is, or the size of the garden. However, the asking price you end up deciding on will heavily depend on whether you want to maximise how much you make from the property sale or how quickly you want to sell the house.

While an official property valuation is the best and most accurate way to find out your property’s worth, there are other things you can research in order to land on the best asking price for you, your property and your goals.

Colby Short, our CEO and co-founder, explains “One really easy way to decide how much your house might be worth is to find out how much nearby properties have sold for. Your house will likely have a comparable value to similar properties sold in your area, so finding this figure out can give you a rough idea of your property’s value. It’s really easy to get this information too - for example, you can use our house prices tool to find out the average price of recently sold houses in your area or our online valuation tool to find a rough valuation of how much your property could fetch in a sale.”

To reveal the areas of the UK with the most and least expensive asking prices, we analysed our data of over 1.5 million properties which were listed as for sale in 2023.

Top 20 most expensive UK postcodes (excluding London)

Unsurprisingly, the nation’s capital, London, dominated the list of most expensive postcodes in the UK, meaning we’ve excluded London from our national rankings and have revealed the most and least expensive London boroughs in a later section in this report.

Outside of the capital, it is the GU25 postcode which tops our list as the most expensive postcode. Located in Runnymede in Surrey, GU25 also topped last year’s list of most expensive areas, with the average selling price increasing from £3.27 million in 2022 to over £3.5 million on average in 2023. Surrounded by an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Surrey Hills, and being easily commutable to London, it’s no surprise the postcode ranks highly. Following this trend, other local postcodes, such as Waverley’s GU8 and Surrey Heath’s GU20 postcodes also rank in 14th and 18th spots, respectively.

In second position is the PA44 postcode, which belongs to the Isle of Islay, the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides, located off Scotland's west coast. The island boasts an impressive 130 miles of coastline and is famous for its malt whiskies, with eight distilleries on the island. This, combined with beautiful wildlife and picturesque scenery, means that home sellers are able to set selling prices high, at an average selling price of £3 million.

Also placing in the top ten most expensive postcodes are two postcodes in South Buckinghamshire, with Bourne End’s SL8 postcode placing in fourth position and Denham’s UB9 postcode ranking in 10th position. Manchester’s M2 postcode, and postcodes in desirable destinations, including South Oxfordshire and the New Forest also rank in the top ten.

Top 20 least expensive UK postcodes (excluding London)

According to our analysis, the PA25 postcode in Cairndow, Argyllshire is home to the most affordable postcode in the country, with homes in the area selling for an average of just under £55,000 in 2023. Many more Scottish postcodes also rank in the top 20 least expensive areas too, with half of the top-ranking postcodes being located in Scottish regions that include Renfrewshire, Glasgow and North Ayrshire, all of which had average selling prices of less than £130,000 in 2023.

Beyond Scotland, northern postcodes including Middlesborough’s TS3 postcode, County Durham postcode DL4 and SR8, and Sheffield’s S4 postcodes also all rank in the top ten, with an average selling price of under £115,000 - almost 73% less than the average national house price of £423,313, as of January 2024.

Top 20 most expensive London postcodes

When looking solely at London postcodes, our data reveals that the City of Westminster is undoubtedly the most expensive borough in London, with 14 of the top 20 postcodes all hailing from the area. Mayfair’s W1J postcode ranks as the most expensive, with average asking prices reaching almost £8 million in 2023, while postcodes located in Grosvenor Square (£7.57 million) and Regent Street (£7.23 million) follow to make up the top three.

Outside of Westminster, postcodes in boroughs including Kensington and Chelsea, Camden and the City of London all also rank in the top 20, with average selling prices in the top 20 postcode areas not falling beneath £3 million.

Where in the UK are home sellers most likely to achieve their asking price?

In an ideal world, every house seller would achieve the house price which suits them and their needs. However, no one is guaranteed to get the exact amount they’re asking for. If houses are in demand, for example, buyers may need to compete and offer above the asking price in order to secure the house of their choosing - the ideal outcome for house sellers. Alternatively, if the market has slowed or the home has been marketed at too high a price, sellers may be forced to slash asking prices in order to get the property off the market.

To find out the areas which are able to achieve above the asking price, we’ve analysed our internal listings data - which also revealed the top locations where sellers have achieved less than the asking price too.

Top 10 UK postcodes achieving more than asking price

The best-performing area when it came to achieving higher than the asking price is Birmingham, with the Midlands’ B2 and B7 postcodes ranking in positions one and two, thanks to properties in the area achieving 113% and 106% of their original asking prices, respectively. Birmingham’s B19 postcode also ranks in the sixth spot, with properties achieving 103% of the original asking price on average in 2023.

Cornwall’s TR17 postcode (home to the picturesque coastal town of Marazion) and two Newcastle postcodes - NE2 and NE6 complete the top five, each offering home sellers 104% of the asking price on average. Postcodes in northern cities including Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield also rank in the top ten, each achieving between 102% and 103% of the asking price.

Top 10 UK postcodes achieving less than asking price

Our data revealed that Carmarthenshire’s SA32 postcode is the worst performing when it comes to achieving less than the asking price. The postcode area, which is home to the village of Nantgaredig, was found to achieve only 85% of the original asking price, on average in 2023.

Also ranking as the top areas achieving significantly less than the asking price were postcodes in locations including neighbouring Welsh regions including Anglesey and Ceredigion, and even London boroughs including Kennington and Chelsea, Westminster, Islington and Camden.

Which UK locations are selling their homes the quickest?

Some house sellers won’t be as concerned with the sale price of their home, however, with some situations requiring a house sale to happen as quickly as possible instead. Unfortunately, due to factors outside of a house seller’s control, this is not always possible. Colby Short explains why attracting as many potential buyers as possible is a great first step to achieving a fast sale: “There are three main things to do in order to achieve the quickest sale possible. Firstly, though it sounds simple, ensure that you’ve sorted your home out before putting it on the market. Spacious, clean and nicely decorated properties are simply going to be more appealing to buyers, so ensuring your house is in great condition before listing the property will give the best first impression to buyers.

“Secondly, deciding on the right price for your property, although difficult to work out, can have the single biggest impact on the speed of your sale. With most properties receiving the most viewings in the first two weeks, you don’t want to exclude potential ideal buyers by advertising the property at the wrong price early on. Finally, choosing the best estate agent can really help to speed up the process of selling your home, with a good agent being able to sort everything from an accurate valuation of your home, to helping get viewers through the door.”

Top 20 postcodes which are selling their homes quickest

Our data reveals that East Lothian’s EH40 saw the quickest-selling properties in 2023. Properties in the area took just 27 days on average to sell - less than a third of the time it takes an average UK property to sell.

Scottish postcodes dominated the top 20 quickest-selling postcodes, in fact, with every single one of the postcodes being located in the country. Three postcodes in Argyllshire rank in the top ten, while a quarter of the top 20 postcodes can be found in Glasgow, proving that those selling in Scotland can easily achieve a quick sale.

In 2023, the housing crisis in Scotland only intensified, with three Scottish Local Authorities declaring housing emergencies. Scottish Government data revealed that in 2023, Edinburgh and Glasgow councils saw decreases of 23% and 46%, respectively, in the number of new homes started compared to the year previous. In addition, our own research, which analysed Google search data to reveal where Londoners want to move to in 2024, found that Edinburgh was the top city Londoners want to relocate to, followed by Birmingham and then Glasgow ranking in third spot. With properties so in demand in the Scottish region, it’s perhaps no surprise that homes are selling quicker in the country than anywhere else in the UK.

Outside of Scotland, some of the quickest-selling postcodes in England included Manchester’s M31 postcode, the Gleadless Valley area of Sheffield (S14) and Poole’s BH17 postcode.

If our report has inspired you to put your house on the market in 2024, then why not use our online house valuation tool to reveal how much money you could get for your property?

Methodology

Data compiled for the report from the following sources:

• GetAgent internal consumer data
• Land Registry data

All data correct as of December 2023.