In inner London discounts have reached as high as 10%.
Homebuyers in London are typically claiming a 4% discount off the purchase price, Hometrack’s UK Cities House Price Index has found.
In inner London discounts have reached as high as 10%.
Just four years ago in 2014 London buyers typically only got a discount of 0.5%.
Richard Donnell, insight director at Hometrack, said: “The level of discounting provides insight into the strength of underlying demand for housing across UK cities.
“Asking prices tend to act as the ‘shock absorber’ to softer pricing as demand weakens.
“However, once discounts get close to 10%, this is when falls in headline prices start to occur.”
The highest city house price gains in the year to December 2017 were in Edinburgh (8.2%), Birmingham (7.5%) and Glasgow (7.2%).
At the other end of the spectrum prices in Aberdeen fell by 9.9%, while they also dropped by 1.4% in Cambridge and 0.9% in Oxford.
Donnell added: “These results confirm our view that the housing market is following the pattern registered in previous housing cycles with high rates of growth in London over the first half of the cycle being followed by low growth and an acceleration in regional housing markets as prices recover off a low base.
“We appear to be at this transition period once again.
“The gap between the annual growth rate in London (1.8%) and the average across the large regional cities of Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow (7.5%) is widening and at its highest since September 2005.”
