Homebuyer and seller search trends reveal market anxieties

Homebuyer and seller search trends for 2023 reveal current market anxieties

Research by property purchasing specialist, House Buyer Bureau, reveals which of the most common home buyer and seller search terms have seen the biggest popularity increase in the past three months as the British public get to grips with navigating the housing market during a period of economic complexity.

To discover how recent market and economic changes have affected the priorities and concerns of home buyers and sellers, House Buyer Bureau analysed 25 of the most common property search terms to see which have seen the biggest increase in their ‘interest score’ since the start of 2023.

The biggest growth in interest score since the start of the year has been seen with the term ‘Property chain’, rising by 51.4%, from 13.4 in January to 20.2 in April.

‘House quick sale’ has increased by 44.6%, from 9.8 to 14.2, while ‘Down valuation’ is up 39.6%.

Searches for ‘Asking prices’ (32.7%) and ‘Gazundering’ (0.3%) have also become more popular, while searches for ‘Gazumping’ have seen the largest decline, down -70.7% since the start of the year.

The fact that these are the only search terms to see an increased popularity reflect buyer and seller anxieties surrounding the housing market and wider economy since the start of the year.

A rise in ‘Property chain’ searches suggests that people are increasingly concerned or affected by collapsing chains, as buyers and sellers get cold feet during this period of intense financial worries.

The rising interest in quick selling suggests that, during this spell of market cooling, sellers are eager to sell their homes before house prices drop any further, and a recent reduction in house prices has no doubt driven the rising interest in ‘Asking prices’ searches.

The growth of ‘Down valuation’ indicates that sellers are also being subject to a reduction in the value of their home during the survey process.

Finally, the rising interest in ‘Gazundering’ is particularly interesting because it suggests that the power dynamic has shifted away from sellers, where it has lay ever since the start of the pandemic, and towards buyers. Gazundering is the practice of a buyer reducing their offer at the last minute.

It’s the opposite of gazumping in which a buyer trumps a rival buyer with a higher offer at the eleventh hour which was an incredibly common practice during the housing market boom of recent years.

This change in dynamic is further highlighted by the fact that the search interest score for ‘gazumping’ has seen the biggest decrease since the start of the year of all search terms.

Managing Director of House Buyer Bureau, Chris Hodgkinson, commented:

“There is no greater litmus test for consumer sentiment and concerns than the words they tap into Google. This data shows us clearly that sellers are anxious about the falling value of their home, and the fact that power has shifted towards the buyer in cooling market conditions.

Due to the extent of which house prices boomed during the pandemic and subsequent stamp duty holiday, there is a chance that this period of cooling could last for some time, with a lack of buyer demand driven by the cost of living also causing prices to reduce.

So it’s hardly surprising that many sellers are looking for a quicker way to sell in order to secure a price in the current market, before the value of their home drops any further.”