Autumn budget uncertainty is good news for bold homebuyers

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The uncertainty on which way the chancellor will turn means that there are bargains to be had, from magnificent Ripley Castle in North Yorkshire (on the market with Carter Jonas), where the main lot —including the 14th-century grade I listed castle itself, a private apartment, retail units and 166 acres of parkland — has been slashed from £15 million to £7.5 million, to listing after listing of languishing apartments in major cities with “reduced” slapped across their sales details.

Ripley Castle in North Yorkshire is on the market for £7.5 million, a massive reduction from its previous £15 million asking price

Sir Thomas and Lady Emma Ingilby, the owners of Ripley Castle. The property is on sale for the first time in its 700-year history

JAMES GLOSSOP FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

How homebuyers are negotiating discounts

In Brighton and Hove, for instance, almost half of the 202 flats for sale on Rightmove in the average price bracket of £325,000-£350,000 have been reduced, most since the summer.

Even if sellers read the room and reduce an ambitious asking price, buyers will likely pitch in and negotiate a further discount — 39 per cent of UK buyers surveyed by the HomeOwners Alliance campaign group have negotiated and bought a property below its asking price.

The most common discount, according to the same research, is up to 5 per cent. While 20 per cent of buyers negotiate this level of price reduction, 14 per cent secured a 5 to 10 per cent cut, and 6 per cent manage to haggle more than 10 per cent off.

Rebecca and Jolly Alcock negotiated a whopping 16 per cent off a four-bedroom Victorian terraced house in Sharrow Vale, a popular area of southwest Sheffield.

The property, which had been a student let, was about to be put on the market for £300,000 by an owner who has been gradually selling off her portfolio to take advantage of capital gains tax relief before any budget changes were announced.

“The owner was scared of any forthcoming changes to capital gains tax, so she wanted a very quick sale,” says 34-year-old Rebecca, who was tipped off that the property was coming to the market by a house-clearance company. “I messaged her and said, ‘We wouldn’t be anywhere near that.’ She came back and said, ‘What would you offer?’ We said £252,000, to which she went, ‘That’s too low.’ But a few days later she came back to us and said, ‘OK, £252,000, but you must be able to complete within eight weeks.’”

Jolly and Rebecca Alcock negotiated 16 per cent off their four-bedroom Victorian house in Sharrow Vale, Sheffield

JON SUPER FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

The sale, achieved directly between the two parties without an estate agent, went ahead and completed in September, within the eight-week timeframe. The Alcocks, who have three children, aged four, six and seven, and co-own a Sheffield-based property investment property, Jolly Property, are now refurbishing the house and will put it back on the market in January for around £375,000. “Whatever happens in any budget, we just carry on,” says Rebecca. “For us, uncertainty always generates opportunities.”

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Whatever this next budget brings, prime areas of the north of England, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales will “remain more resilient” argues Frances McDonald, Savills’ director of residential research, in the company’s annual autumn/winter Prime UK Residential report: “Relatively lower values mean there would probably be less impact from any potential tax changes. Meanwhile, those in the south [of England] have seen values fall more significantly, particularly in discretionary second home and coastal hotspots.”

However, elements of the northern market are definitely feeling the strain. David Lewis, regional partner for the northwest at Garrington Property Finders, says he’s hearing regular reports of sellers in prime Cheshire areas such as the “golden triangle” of Prestbury, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge receiving offers at 10 or 15 per cent below asking price. By no means are all accepted, he adds, “but highly proceedable, and cash buyers have been dealt an additional trump card by the current softness of the market. Sellers of larger houses and those who’ve either been on the market a long time or need a quick sale tend to be the most open to negotiation.”

In Didsbury, an affluent suburb of Manchester, it’s apartments that are taking the hit, according to Ziggi Moughal, sales manager at the estate agency Philip James. “We have sold huge apartments that are rightly priced for what they are,” he says. “But what some owners don’t realise is that usually with flats you’re going to take a haircut in terms of the price. You can buy a three-bedroom Victorian terrace for £490,000, for example, so people are just not going to pay a similar amount [in the current market] for a flat with no outside space.”

A two-bedroom apartment at Keepers Quay in Manchester is for sale at £400,00 (a £20,000 reduction) via Savills

Quieter market conditions in Newcastle upon Tyne and attractive northeast towns such as Ponteland are leaving “significant room to negotiate, especially homes in the £600,000–£900,000 range, or modern apartments for which demand has softened slightly”, says James Middleton, Garrington’s northeast regional partner. Speed is of the essence, he adds: “Buyers who move now, rather than waiting for the budget, can often secure 5–10 per cent below asking price from sellers keen to complete before the year end.”

Further north, in Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow are offering “genuine advantages for buyers at present,” says Rhea Balfour, Edinburgh-based regional partner at Garrington: “Quality apartments in Edinburgh’s New Town and Stockbridge, as well as in Glasgow’s West End, continue to sell when priced correctly, but budget uncertainty is making many sellers more realistic with their pricing and pragmatic about the offers they receive.”

Meanwhile, in the powerhouse city of Leeds, the mood is more bullish, says Jonathan Morgan, partner at Zenko City Living. “The budget? I don’t think it’s going to have an impact in the city centre at least,” he says. “It’s been a challenging few years for apartments, but it’s definitely getting better. The cladding issues are being sorted out now the government is paying for it [through the Cladding Safety Scheme], service charges are beginning to get more sensible and extending your lease will become easier.

“Being a gnarly old dog, I genuinely think that, with the budget, these things come and go. Yes, it might be a little bit unnerving for younger, more inexperienced buyers, but having been around, I think we’ll survive.”

“Just getting on with it,” is the market mantra in Norwich too, where the ancient East Anglian cathedral city’s newish hipster vibe — it is a Sunday Times Best Place to Live this year — two universities and trains to Cambridge and London Liverpool Street that take less than an hour and a half are underpinning its appeal.

“The market in Norwich is holding up pretty well,” says Claire Whisker, founder of the property adviser platform First in the Door. “Buyers might submit an initial offer of 10 per cent below asking price, but many sellers have certain expectations about what they will accept. Some will have already made price reductions and want to hold the line.”

Six Chimneys, a four-bedroom house in the village of Howe, seven miles south of Norwich, is for sale at £800,000 with Sowerbys, reduced from £850,000

At the other end of the country, buying agent Nigel Bishop, the founder and managing director of Recoco Property Search, is tearing his hair out. Fears over the budget are causing mayhem in the south of England, he claims.

“Just look at Exeter on Rightmove: reduction after reduction after reduction,” he says. “Let’s put it in context. Exeter is a beautiful city, with a very strong university, a good cross-section of big companies and the Met Office. Within 20 minutes you’re on Dartmoor and there’s the beach at Exmouth. Really good schools. Paddington in just over two hours on the fastest train. It’s a really good place. The only thing that’s wrong at the moment is someone called Rachel Reeves, sitting in London. This government has killed the property market.”

Also in the southwest, Bristol is seeing “an oversupply of stock and a competitiveness between vendors to secure a motivated buyer”, according to Lili Oliver from the Bristol buying agent Oliver Roth. While family homes within catchment areas for good schools are holding up, “Apartments across all areas are more difficult for vendors due to increased pressure on first-time buyers, such as the cost of living crisis and mortgage rates, as well as for second-home owners and investors due to increased stamp duty and taxes,” she says.

A four-bedroom home in Clifton, Bristol, has been reduced from £1.25 million to £1.22 million with the agent Rupert Oliver

The stamp duty surcharge on additional residential properties, including second homes and buy-to-let properties in England and Northern Ireland, rose from 3 to 5 per cent in October 2024. And in April 2025, councils were granted the power to charge a 100 per cent council tax premium on second homes in England. This was already in place in Scotland. In Wales, councils can charge a 300 per cent premium.

The impact of existing tax changes on buy-to-let properties is being keenly felt across the capital, says Alisa Zotimova, chief executive of the property consultancy AZ Real Estate. She reports discounts being accepted on a spate of resale units at a number of new schemes across London from west to east, including some at a lower price than the original owners paid a few years ago: “It’s been a buyer’s market for apartments all year across London, with some heavy discounts of up to 30 per cent on asking being accepted,” she says. “This latest wave of pre-budget uncertainty has only added to that — so if you can purchase now, secure a discount and move quickly.”

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Whatever is announced in the budget, “A bit of clarity will be welcome,” says Phil Agius, sales director at Wilfords estate agency, covering central, west and southwest London.

After months of hesitation and second-guessing, buyers and sellers are both craving direction, he believes. “Unless the chancellor delivers something truly dreadful, the simple act of knowing where things stand could spark a much-needed burst of confidence,” he says.

But if clarity brings confidence, it will also bring competition, which will make early 2026 interesting. Agius adds: “Anyone sitting on the sidelines risks finding themselves in bidding wars or paying more for the same property post-budget. Others may use Christmas to regroup. Some who had hoped to move earlier in the autumn, before all the Treasury leaks, are likely to wait until the new year, setting up a busy spring.”