博鱼体育集团

The share of UK buyers that viewed a property just once before purchasing it was the second highest in a decade last year.

In 2022, it was love at first sight for 29.5% of buyers, a shade lower than the 30.3% that viewed a home just once before purchasing it in 2021, 博鱼体育集团 Frank data shows.

鈥�2021 was the year of the stamp duty holiday and an often-frenetic property market, which saw record activity and stiff competition,鈥� said Chris Druce, senior research analyst at 博鱼体育集团 Frank.

鈥淟ast year, buyers that missed out in 2021 were highly motivated. As the year progressed and interest rates increased and then spiked after the mini-Budget, buyers sitting on low-rate mortgage offers were also highly incentivised to act decisively.鈥�

While an average of 22.8% of UK buyers viewed a property just once before buying during the past decade, the figure in the three years since 2020 has been 29.3%.

The pandemic meant estate agents, like many businesses, supercharged their adoption of technology. It means the amount of information and videos online are significantly higher than before the first lockdown. This allows more preliminary research to be done and buyers are increasingly decisive during viewings.

鈥淭he pandemic saw people re-evaluate their lifestyles and decide what was important to them in a home,鈥� said James Cleland, head of the country business at 博鱼体育集团 Frank.

鈥淏uyers now turn up to a viewing committed to moving, typically having researched the area and the property itself beforehand. It means that when they fall in love with the house, they don鈥檛 often need a second viewing to know it鈥檚 the one,鈥� James added.

At a location level (see table), Edinburgh - which had a strong end to last year - topped the list with more than half of sales to buyers that viewed once (57%) with Esher (51%) and Stow-on-the-Wold third (45%).

The list is unsurprisingly topped by areas that have benefitted from a surge in demand in recent years during the so-called 鈥榬ace for space鈥�.

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