Are homes going back on sale with higher asking prices after lockdown? 

I found a property for sale that was available in October 2019. At the time, it had an asking price of £1.75million.

It didn’t sell and is now back on the market for £50,000 more – or £1.8million.  

Is this a case of people putting houses back on the market for a bit more than just before the coronavirus, expecting buyers to ask for a discount, and allowing them to think they’re getting a good deal?

MailOnline Property expert Myra Butterworth replies: Those who keep a keen eye on the property market may have seen a number of examples of properties that didn’t sell last year, or at the beginning of this year, which are now back on the market with a higher asking price.

A handful of cases have been brought to our attention, with some £1million-plus properties having an extra £50,000 added to the asking price. 

This goes against the traditional thought on homes that fail to sale, with prices normally being lowered to attract a buyer.

It begs the questions why this is happening and whether it’s to try to convince some buyers they are getting a good deal? We asked buying agent Henry Pryor for his thoughts, which he gives in detail below. 

He suggests that many buyers have no idea what a property is worth and sellers take advantage of this. 

If you’ve spotted a property you like, whether the price has gone up or not, how should you decide what to offer.

The key is always to do as much research as you can about a property. 

This includes searching on the internet for any information about a property’s address and surrounding area. 

You then need to assess if this information works for your personal circumstances. 

For example, some families may be willing to pay over the odds to live near a good school, while other people will be more than happy to extend their mortgage substantially if it means they only have a five minute walk to work. 

Ultimately, if you’re buying a property, only you can decide what it is worth to you as you’re the one that is going to have to live with that decision.

If you do want to track asking price movements, you can download a plug-in such as Property Tracker for your Chrome internet browser.

Buying agent Henry Pryor replies: Having worked in the world of property for more than 35 years it would be fair to say that there isn’t much I haven’t seen, such as buyers behaving badly and sellers being economical with the truth.

The housing market is perhaps the last true capitalist market. You can ask as much as you like and offer whatever you want. 

Most of the protagonists are unqualified and emotions often run as high as the prices. Sometimes people cut corners.

In the three downturns I’ve worked through, prices started to slide at some point. 

Most people mistake an asking price with a value and when deciding what to offer many buyers reference their offer to the asking price with ‘so many per cent below’ as if somehow paying less than the seller was asking was an indication of what a great deal they had done.

The sad truth is that many buyers have no idea what something is worth and sellers and agents take advantage of this.

If you stick 10 per cent on the asking price, then there will be some buyers who will offer 10 per cent less, thinking that it must be a good deal.

I’m seeing more and more examples of houses that didn’t sell last year being offered for sale again this year asking more than they did before.

Some buyers will be taken in by this although there are ways to minimise the chances of this happening to you.

There are plug-ins for your internet browser that will highlight any price change for a property on property websites such as Rightmove.

Simply putting the property address into a search engine will also often bring up previous, historic listings. And, of course, other estate agents will be able to point out if someone else’s property has, shall we say, a chequered past.

I always tell my clients ‘the buyer decides what a property is worth, the seller has the luxury of deciding if it’s enough’.

There is a wall of investment money keen to commoditise residential property – people who want to be able to value property by reference to the floor area for instance, but if they could then there would be an app that could tell you what your property is worth and I’d be out of a job.

As always, check out a property before you bid. Talk to neighbours, to other agents, you’d be surprised what people will tell you.

Remember, the asking price is not an indication of value, a statement of what the seller will accept, necessarily what the estate agent advised, or what a mortgage valuer might sign it off at.

Just because the seller will take less than his price doesn’t make it a good deal. ‘Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.’