The Tale of Two Sellers: A Modern North Devon Property Tale
Once upon a very recent time, Halifax announced that average UK house prices had crept back up again. New “record high”, they said. Headlines shouted about nearly £300,000 average values and year-on-year growth.
If you only read that, you’d assume the market is roaring, buyers are queuing round the block, and every seller simply has to sit tight and wait for “their price” to arrive like a handsome prince on a white mortgage.
Except… in the South West (and here in North Devon), that’s not quite the story.
We’re living in a different chapter.
Chapter One: King Halifax and the Magic Average
In our fairy tale, **King Halifax** stands on a hill and declares:
“On average, house prices are rising!”
And he’s right. If you blend the whole UK into one big smoothie, values have ticked up. That matters – it tells us the market isn’t falling off a cliff.
But down in the South West corner of the kingdom, things look different:
* There are more homes for sale than this time last year.
* Buyers are choosier, especially at the upper end.
* Growth is modest; in some pockets it’s flat or slightly negative.
So yes, the King’s speech is technically true. It’s just not the full story for our village.
Chapter Two: The Anchored Tower versus The Moving Bridge
In this market, I’m seeing two clear characters emerge:
- The Anchored Sellers (up in the tower)
They’re lovely people. They’ve owned their home a long time. They’ve watched years of “house prices hit new record high” headlines.
Their script goes something like:
“We paid £X in 2005; look what everything’s “worth” now.”
“The property down the road went for £Y in 2022, ours is nicer.”
“We don’t want to GIVE it away.”
So they set a price that’s ‘comfortably above’ the live market. The listing goes up. Viewings happen (at first). Feedback repeats the same themes:
“Nice house… but not for us.” – Code for there are better and cheaper homes nearby.
Weeks pass. Then months. Other homes come on at more realistic guides and quietly go under offer.
The anchored sellers are still in the tower, staring at national indices like tarot cards.
- The Bridge-Builders
Then we’ve got another group. They’re reading the ‘same’ headlines, but they also look at:
* Sold prices in their actual street / village / patch
* Number of similar homes competing with them
* Real-time viewing numbers and feedback
These sellers still want a strong price (they’re not running a charity), but they accept that the ‘2022 peak’ has gone. They work with the market that’s actually in front of them.
They:
* Set a guide that looks obviously “in the zone”
* Sort the small jobs, declutter, brighten, tidy the garden
* Stay flexible on viewings and timescales
* Are open to a negotiation that makes the whole move stack up
Result? They move from tower to ‘bridge’ – and the bridge goes somewhere.
Chapter Three: What the Bridge-Builders Get
Here’s what I’m seeing, over and over, with the sellers who lean into reality rather than fight it.
- They actually move
Sounds basic, but it’s the whole point of all of this, isn’t it?
Because they price and present for ‘today’s’ buyers, they:
* Get decent viewing levels
* Receive sensible offers
* Agree a sale in a realistic timeframe
Instead of watching another Christmas (and Budget) roll past from the same sofa, they’re packing boxes and arguing about where the toaster goes in the new kitchen.
- They buy well on the other side
This bit often gets forgotten.
If you’re stuck at the wrong price, you’re not a buyer – you’re a browser. The moment you ‘have a proceedable sale’, you become a very different creature:
* You can negotiate firmly on the home you want
* You can move quickly when something good hits the market
* You can use the current caution to your advantage
- They stop living in limbo
The intangible gain: life moves on.
The anchored tower crowd often spend months half-living:
* Not really starting projects “in case we move”
* Half-packing, half-not
* Changing agents, getting frustrated, blaming “the market”
The grounded sellers accept the data, adjust, and move on.
It’s not always the fairytale high price they dreamed of in 2021, but it’s ‘enough’ to unlock the next chapter – new school catchment, closer to family, downsizing the maintenance, upsizing the garden… whatever their “why” is.
And in my book, that’s the real win.
Chapter Four: What We’re Seeing ‘Right Now’
So, live from the South West storybook:
- National averages: quietly climbing – reassuring, but broad-brush.
- Our patch: more stock, pickier buyers, pricing sensitivity especially over certain thresholds.
- Well-aligned homes: going under offer at sensible levels, with solid buyers.
- Over-anchored homes: racking up days on market, then needing bigger compromises later.
The gap between those two groups isn’t magic. It’s not luck. It’s alignment.
The Moral of the story
If this is a fairy tale, it goes like this:
* The Kingdom’s crier (Halifax) announces “prices are rising!”
* Some villagers chain themselves to a number in their head and wait for someone to meet it.
* Others check the real market, sharpen their strategy, and cross the bridge.
And the ones who cross:
* Get their sale done
* Turn into strong buyers on the other side
* Use this calmer, more rational period to ‘trade up, down or sideways’ on terms that suit them
Meanwhile, the national headlines roll on, up a bit, down a bit – and the people who made decisions based on their actual village, not the Kingdom average, get to live the next part of their story, not just dream about it.
P.S. I’m offering a no-obligation 15-minute Pricing & Strategy Check-In if it helps.
All the best
Nic Chbat – Director
Call me on 01271 410108 or drop me an email at nic@matchproperty.co.uk with the subject ’15 minute check in’. I’ll come straight back to you.