Sellers accepting first offer could miss out on £6,000, Alto finds
The estate agency CRM analysed 905,265 offers made on 294,582 homes between 1st September 2025 and 31st August 2026.
Home sellers who accept the first offer they receive could miss out on thousands of pounds, according to analysis from Alto.
The estate agency CRM analysed 905,265 offers made on 294,582 homes between 1st September 2025 and 31st August 2026.
More than half (54.8%) of sellers ultimately accepted an offer above the first one received, while 69% of properties attracted more than one offer.
Among homes receiving multiple offers, the final accepted price was a median £6,000 higher than the first offer.
For properties attracting four or more buyers, the difference increased to £10,000.
However, 31% of properties received only one offer, while almost a quarter (24.6%) of homes receiving an offer did not have one accepted.
Across 307,582 agreed sales, properties received a median of seven viewings before an offer was accepted, with around seven weeks between the first viewing and the sale being agreed.
Some 34% required more than 10 viewings, while 6.4% were agreed after a single viewing.
Properties priced below £150,000 required a median of five viewings, rising to nine for homes valued between £650,000 and £1m.
Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson, chief executive officer at Alto, said: “The first offer is almost never the best one, and now we can put a number on what that’s worth.
“Across nearly a million offers, the one that gets accepted sits at £6,000 above the first one a seller was shown, and £10,000 where four or more buyers are bidding.
“That isn’t a reason to hold out forever. A third of sellers only ever get one offer, and the longer a home sits on the market, the weaker that offer tends to look.”
He added: “It’s a reason to get the price right on day one, because that’s what gets a second buyer through the door.”
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