Thousands of sellers have relisted their homes for sale in the new year offering an asking price discount, according to research by Yopa.

The estate agency analysed data on the number of homes that have returned to the market across Britain having previously failed to find a buyer in 2023. The average price of these properties was then compared to the wider average price of homes that remained listed for sale to see what kind of discounts are being offered. 

According to the analysis, last week there were 2,019 properties that had returned to the market across Britain, having previously failed to sell. 

The largest proportion of returning homes were located in the South East of England, with 21% of the national total. 

London and the East of England each had 13% of Britain’s returning homes, followed by the North West (9%), East Midlands (8%), West Midlands (8%), and Yorkshire & Humber (7%). 

The average asking price of all the properties to have re-entered the market came in at 2.3% cheaper than the total average price of a home.

However, there are bigger discounts available on a regional level, according to Yopa. 

In Scotland, homes returning to the market were priced 4% below the wider regional average price. In London the discount was 3.9%, followed by the East Midlands (-3.7%), South West (-2.7%) and North East (-2%).

Verona Frankish, CEO of Yopa, commented: “There will have been lots of motivated sellers entering the market towards the back end of 2023 – sellers who would have been hopeful of securing a sale before the Christmas break as market conditions started to improve. 

“However, not all of them will have managed to do so and whether it was due to a transaction collapsing, or simply to reset ahead of the January rush, many will have decided to pull their property listing and re-enter the market come the new year. 

“Now that 2024 is upon us, these sellers will be hoping to take advantage of strengthening market conditions and an uplift in buyer activity, but having already listed their home for sale once, many are likely to be offering a discount on their asking price in order to entice buyers to make an offer.”