Gazumping gets more main stream in the UK.
Market watchers say they’re seeing more buyers being outbid after their offers are accepted.
When a ground and basement flat at a sought-after address in London’s Notting Hill came down in price by tens of thousands of pounds over a period of weeks, canny buyers started to finally show interest. Once an offer was made for the home at the posh Elgin Crescent, others started to pile in, eventually resulting in the perceived value of the flat rising back up again, and selling for several thousand pounds over the original asking price.
The original buyer, whose reasonable offer had been accepted by the seller was “gazumped” by a late-arriving buyer prepared to pay more in an underhand practice.
This phenomenon of out-pricing a buyer with a higher bid before contracts are exchanged but after an offer has been accepted by the seller, is a sneaky tactic normally associated with a booming real estate market, but it is happening right now in the U.K
Last year, government policymakers met with senior members of the U.K.’s National Association of Estate Agents to discuss the possibility of simplifying the buying process, including measures to end gazumping but no law has yet been put in place.
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